Descendant of Evil
by Crystal187
Summary: COMPLETE What if Ganondorf had a backup plan in case he were to be defeated by the Hero of Time? Even though he is now sealed away, the King of Evil is able to continue terrorizing Link and Zelda in an unimaginable way: through his son. The descendant of
1. Prologue

Descendant of Evil

PG-13

Summary: AU: OoT. What if Ganondorf had a backup plan in case he were to be defeated by the Hero of Time? Even though he is now sealed away, the King of Evil is able to continue terrorizing Link and Zelda in an unimaginable way: through his son. The descendant of the King of Evil must face the demons inside that he inherited from his father, or else become his father himself.

Oh, and this is pretty much assuming that Zelda did NOT send Link back to his childhood… just so you don't get too confused.

Disclaimer: Of course, I do not own Zelda or any of the characters associated with it. I guess I do own my original characters, though, not that it really matters.

A/N: This random idea popped into my head, and I honestly wasn't going to make a fic out of it, but here I am. Please, give this story a chance. It gets better as it goes along, and I've worked extremely hard on it. If you read, please review. Constructive criticism is welcome and appreciated. Heh… I'm kinda nervous. I sort of hope that Zelda fans are half as nice as the Moulin Rouge fans were. Anyway, I am my own editor, but I'm very picky so there shouldn't be many grammatical or spelling errors.

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Prologue

For as long as I can remember, I hated Link with a passion. Perhaps I was born with this hatred. After all, he was my father's sworn enemy, and I suppose I have no control over what I inherited from my father. My father planted the seeds of evil into my mother one fateful day, creating me and cursing her and Link for the rest of their lives. However, my hatred for Link was amplified when I discovered that he and my mother had been lying to me my entire life. The web of lies and deceit that they created over the years had covered my eyes, making it all the more difficult to bear the truth when it was forced upon me.

Yes, it is true that my mother had lied to me. But I could never hate her. She represented light and purity, and all that was good. She told me that she was merely trying to protect me, and I believed her. I still do believe her. She's one of the only reasons I fight against the demons within me that have tormented me since I was just a child.

It's not easy being hated by your entire country and secretly feared by your loved ones. So why do I still even bother to live? Why do I go through daily life, straining to please everyone else, while on the inside my soul is being torn apart?

Because of hope. I cling on to any bit of hope that I manage to grasp as if it is my lifeline. As dismal as my situation may seem, I try to have faith in myself and those who help me along the way. I look toward a better tomorrow, and toward a brighter future.

I am Kiran Harkinian. Apprentice to the Hero of Time. Heir to the throne of Hyrule.

And the son of Ganondorf Dragmire.

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A/N: As I said before, don't worry: I promise it'll get better. Link and Zelda and other canon characters are heavily involved, too. Please review!


	2. Child of Obscurity

A/N: Well, here's the first chapter. It's mainly introducing the situation and it may be a bit confusing, but all will be explained in time. Hope you like it!

Child of Obscurity

My farthest back memories are of a small cottage in Kokiri Forest. My mother told me that was also where I was born, and that Link had been helping her hide there during her nine months of pregnancy. I was told it was for protection against Ganondorf's followers, but I have a feeling it was also because they didn't want anyone to know about me. It's not difficult to understand why they would be ashamed of me; after all, I was the spawn of the most hated man in Hyrule.

Of course, I knew all about the so-called legend of the Hero of Time. Hell, I knew it better than anyone else. I had been told the story so many times ever since I was a baby that it was practically engraved in my mind. After all, my own mother was the heroine of the renowned tale, the "Princess of Destiny."

I don't remember much about Kokiri Forest. I was kept inside most of the time until I became a toddler. My mother would let me play outside with the Kokiri children occasionally, but I was always under her close watch, and if she was not watching, then Link was.

Link was a hero to the Kokiri. Well, he was a hero to everyone in Hyrule, but to those Kokiri children, he was practically a god. As young as I was, I could still see how they admired him, their eyes shining with adoration as they crowded around him. I remember I would feel a pang of jealousy whenever they did this. I suppose that it was part of the reason of why I grew to hate him. I was often shunned by the Kokiri; none of them ever really became close to me and I never became friends with any of them.

I spent almost all of my time with my mother. She was a very young mother, for she had given birth to me when she was only seventeen. She was my whole world back then; my only salvation. I would spend endless hours in her arms, and she would whisper words of comfort and love. She adequately filled the place in my heart meant for my supposedly deceased father.

She was very beautiful, of course. I often would twirl strands of her shining golden hair with my little fingers, and she would smile softly at me, her deep blue eyes sparkling. But in spite her loving nature, even I could tell that she was a very sad woman. She would stare off into the distance for what seemed like forever, and I would catch an occasional tear slide down her cheek before she wiped it away hastily. Something had happened in her life that had nearly destroyed her, but I would not learn what it was until much later.

We lived there with Link for about three years before moving to another small house in Kakariko Village. From what I heard, since the castle and the town were being rebuilt up in the north, most Hylians either lived in Kakariko Village or somewhere close to the village. The castle was estimated to be completely finished in about ten years, but my mother would happily tell me that we could move into the completed part within only a few years.

Our house was located somewhat close to the entrance of Kakariko Village, among the many tightly squeezed-in homes. For a long time, we were the main topic for the town gossips. After all, it wasn't often that the Princess of Hyrule and her illegitimate son came to live among the commoners. Not to mention the famed Hero of Time coming to us visit frequently. The most talked about, however, was me. Everyone knew about me. Everyone knew who my father was.

Everyone except me.

I remember Mother telling me fantastic stories about my so-called father. Sometimes, her stories contradicted each other, but I was far too young too realize this at the time. She would tell me that he was a brave Hylian knight that had been killed while helping to hide her from Ganondorf, concocting tales of his great feats and accomplishments. Often times, she made him sound so much like Link that I wondered if she got them confused sometimes.

Link technically didn't live with us, but he was there so often that he might as well have. My mother invited him to all of our meals, and she almost never left the house without him by her side. He was her sworn protector, always there to watch over her and shield her from any harm that may have come to her.

I remember once when I was little, perhaps around four years old, and my mother had gone on a trip to help organize the rebuilding of the castle. She had asked Link to stay with me while she was gone. I was eating dinner one night when I glanced up and looked at Link.

He was standing completely still, staring sternly at the door as if he expected someone to come through it at any moment. I remember he looked rather lonely, and I felt sorry for him. Smiling widely, I approached him from behind and wrapped my arms around his legs affectionately.

"Linky," I cooed, gazing up at him, desperate for his attention.

Link stared down at me, appearing startled for a fleeting moment. He then grimaced and pulled me away from him, asking me what I wanted.

I never attempted to do anything like that again. It was clear that Link disliked me, and I didn't even question why.

On the other hand, it wasn't difficult to see that he was in love with my mother. The way he stared at her longingly when she wasn't aware angered me. Whenever she would touch him or even smile at him, his eyes would glaze over and he would sigh when she wasn't looking. He was constantly doing favors for her, sometimes running all over Hyrule just to do a political errand for her. I'm sure he would have given her the moon if she asked for it. Not only that, but I could tell my mother was very fond of him too, and that angered me further.

Yes, everyone knew they were meant for each other. It was painfully obvious.

I really had no reason for disliking Link so much. It was just a concept in my mind that had always been there; almost as if my hatred for him was planted in my brain when I was born. It was just always there, hovering in the back of my mind.

As I grew older and became more curious about things, I began to wonder why people stared at me all the time. Until then, I hadn't thought anything of it, but lately I had observed that they didn't stare at each other like that. It was just me. I started to feel self-conscious, and I would stare at myself in a mirror for long moments, wondering what made me so different from everyone else.

I soon discovered the reason why, or at least thought I had: I didn't look much like my mother. In fact, I hardly resembled her at all. I didn't even look very Hylian. But everyone is different, I thought to myself. Nevertheless, doubt always loomed in my mind.

I remember one particular afternoon, while I was helping my mother in our small kitchen, I caught my image in the reflection of the small-sized mirror that hung on the wall.

"Mama?" I said as I fingered my unusually pointed nose and stared at my reflection.

"Yes, child?" she replied absentmindedly, her attention focused on kneading the bread for dinner. I remember her always having trouble with cooking; after all, for much of her life, she had lived in a castle with servants to tend to her every need.

"Why do I look so strange?" I asked as I ran a hand through my deep crimson hair.

She suddenly paused in her work and turned to look at me, her eyes filled with apprehension. "Who told you that?" she asked.

"Nobody," I replied. "It's just… kids are supposed to look like their parents, aren't they? But I don't look like you, Mama."

She looked down for a moment, wiping her hands on her apron, and then she approached me in front of the mirror.

"You take after your father, mostly," she said softly, putting her hands on my shoulders. We gazed at our reflections for a moment in silence, observing the differences in our appearances. Her pale complexion and delicate features contrasted to my greenish-gray skin and sharp facial features. We both had pointy ears, like all Hylians do, but hers were much longer and more noticeable than mine. I had deep red, wild hair as opposed to her long, smooth flaxen tresses. But we shared a striking resemblance in the color of our eyes. Although they were shaped differently, we both had eyes of the deepest shade of blue. It was basically the only physical connection I had to my mother.

She suddenly smiled, her eyes twinkling. "But you have my eyes," she said proudly, embracing me and showering me with kisses. I laughed, forgetting about our odd differences and giving in to her excuses, just as I always did. That's the way it always was; she would merely give me a small smile, and I would melt in her arms, completely ignoring the questions that floated around in my head.

A/N: Please review, it helps tremendously! Constructively criticize it all you want, I need all the help I can get.


	3. A Lost Soul

A/N: Umm… heh, this chapter is extremely long. Way longer than any other so far. It just turned out that way, so I hope you enjoy it!

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Lost Soul

Brock was a tall, dark fifteen-year-old with the attitude of a Wolfos. His father was the town drunkard. The two were often the topic of discussion among the town gossips. It was impossible not to hear some rumor about them, especially with the rather nosy ladies chattering constantly to each other across their yards. Whenever my mother would hear a bit of the town gossip, she would smile, shake her head, and whisper to me, "There go the clucking cuccos again. They just can't seem to mind their own business."

Most of the gossipers agreed that Brock was probably abused by his father. He was never without a scratch or a bruise somewhere. He and his father lived in a tiny shack of a house toward the back of the village, near the graveyard. Most of the poverty-stricken or less fortunate peasants lived back there also. It was a place that I was not allowed to venture into, mostly because of the small, rundown tavern located in the darkest corner of the village.

Brock could often be seen lurking in the shadows around there, aimlessly wandering and watching the other villagers go about their daily lives. He had a permanent scowl on his face, and he wore dirty and tattered hand-me-down clothes that were far too large for him. He owned no shoes; the soles of his feet were permanently blackened from a lifetime of walking barefoot.

My mother quickly made friends with our next-door neighbor. She was an elderly lady, and she lived with her grandson Arvin, who was around my age. His father had been killed while trying to rebel against Ganondorf, and his mother died after giving birth to him. We connected together through our similarities, including the fact that we both had no father, and he eventually became my only friend in that village. I spent most of my time after home schooling with him, inventing games and going on imaginary adventures together through our tiny yards.

One afternoon, as I recall, when we were about seven years old, Arvin and I were walking around the village. My mother had been involved in a deep conversation with Arvin's grandmother about the future of Hyrule, and we had wandered off after being warned not to go too far.

It was until we approached the old well toward the back of the village that we realized we had indeed gone too far. We began to turn back when I suddenly noticed a dark figure slinking in the shadows from the corner of my eye. I realized it was Brock. While reaching to grab Arvin's arm to warn him, I made the mistake of meeting Brock's eyes, which narrowed into thin slits as he advanced toward us.

"Well, if it ain't two little pups that wandered too far from home," he called. We froze on the spot, neither of us able to speak as Brock stopped nearly inches from us, smirking roguishly.

"Hey," he said suddenly, nodding at me. "You Zelda's kid, ain't ya?"

I opened my mouth, and then closed it. I had never heard anyone refer to my mother by her first name, with the exception of Link, who only did it occasionally.

Brock ignored the fact that I hadn't replied and continued to provoke me.

"Y'know what? You _do_ kinda look like a Gerudo," he sneered, crossing his arms in front of his chest and continuing to stare at me. I avoided his intense gaze and shifted my weight uncomfortably.

"How do _you _know what a Gerudo looks like?" Arvin piped up boldly from beside me. I stared at him in shock. How could he stand up like that to the creepiest kid in the village?

Brock glared at him, his towering form drowning us in his shadow. "Are you callin' me a liar?" he asked threateningly, his nostrils flaring. I could practically see the steam coming out of his pointy ears.

Arvin shifted his eyes, but he did not cower from the much larger boy. "No," he said quietly.

"That's what I thought," Brock said menacingly, and he turned back to me.

"So…," he said, again staring me down with those piercing eyes. "What's it like? Being the bastard son of… well, you know who."

"What is that supposed to mean?" I piped up, immediately regretting it. Brock fixed his stare on me, and his eyes narrowed. I inwardly shivered, and I could feel myself become tense and ready to run if need be. But fortunately, at that moment, my mother's voice could be heard off in the distance calling my name.

Brock leaned closer to me. "Meet me at midnight in the graveyard t'night," he said in a low voice, "and maybe you'll find out." He smirked as he silently walked away and disappeared into an alley just as my mother spotted us.

"Kiran! Arvin! Oh, thank the goddesses," my mother muttered as she grabbed us by the hands and led us back home. "Don't ever let me catch you wandering so far away again," she scolded.

When we arrived back home, she sat and talked with Arvin's grandmother, keeping an eye on us every move we made. So Arvin and I whispered amongst ourselves.

"So, what do you think we should do?" I asked him, a little excited about what sounded to me like a little adventure in our boring lives.

"There's no way we can go, Kiran," he replied. "You know Brock's a bad kid, and going out into the graveyard at night and everything is really dangerous."

I grunted. "What, you think there are ghosts or something? Monsters? Arvie, all of them were gone with Ganondorf."

"Still," he said cautiously, "I'd get in trouble with Grammy, and you'd get in trouble with your mother, and especially the Hero…" he trailed off, knowing how sensitive I was about the subject. Link was fiercely protective of my mother and seemed likely to obliterate anything that might cause her to worry or be unhappy. And it was clear that he would very well do the same to me if I made her worry.

"We won't get caught," I protested. "I wanna know what he was talking about. I wanna be there to defend Mama and me if I need to."

"No, you don't," he said.

"How do _you_ know?" I asked angrily, raising my voice a little. "I _gotta _know what he means, Arvie!"

"Maybe…it's better not to know," he said slowly.

I stared at him suspiciously. "Do you know something I don't?" I asked him. "Are you in on it, too?"

"No," he replied, but not convincingly enough for me. I abruptly stood up and approached my mother, angrily ordering her to take me home.

"Oh, my," she said, glancing at Arvin's grandmother. "Did you two have a fight?" she asked me.

I began to stalk off home without replying. My mother quickly said goodbye and caught up with me.

"What's wrong? Do you want to talk about it, Kiran?" she asked me.

"No," I replied stubbornly. I kept quiet for the rest of that night. Link stopped by and had some of Mother's dinner, politely declining when my mother asked him to spend the night. He claimed that he had somewhere else to be, which was good for me, for that meant he wouldn't be lurking around while I was trying to sneak out at midnight.

Pretending to be asleep in my bed, I waited until I was sure that my mother had fallen asleep, and then I quietly stole away into the night.

I was greeted by the sound of crickets chirping and frogs croaking as I stepped outside, feeling a gentle night breeze that ruffled my hair. It was an amazingly clear night, and the stars shined brighter than I had ever seen them before. I suddenly shuddered as I felt another breeze, this one colder and harsher. I began to run to the graveyard, fearful of the shadows that seemed to follow me in the darkness.

As soon as I entered the graveyard, I regretted ever stepping foot out of the house. The area was shrouded in darkness, and with the minuscule light of a few flaming torches I could barely see the silhouettes of the stone graves before me. My heart pounding in my chest, I slowly ventured forward.

"Well, well, well. You showed up."

I whirled around to see Brock in the shadows, casually leaning against a grave with his arms crossed in front of his chest. I approached him slowly.

"I must say, I wasn't sure about you," he told me. "You seemed like one a' those prissy Mama's boys, but I guess I was wrong. I s'pose that comes from your daddy."

"Now what do you mean by that?" I asked, tired of this foolish guessing game. "You don't know anything about my father."

"Boy, everyone knows somethin' 'bout your daddy," he said, smirking and tossing his dark hair out of his face. "Every one 'cept you, I reckon."

"I know plenty about him," I retorted angrily.

"No, you just think you do," he said. "Anyway, while you're here, you might as well come up to my place. I'll tell you more there."

"Your place?" I questioned.

"Yeah," he said, turning around and walking toward the back of the graveyard. I hesitated, watching him begin to climb up the tall, brown fence, behind which stood the Shadow Temple. I recalled one time when mother had taken me for a walk in the graveyard. She had said that the Shadow Temple was a sacred place, but also a very dark place, and it was where Impa resided.

Brock turned around to see my hesitation. "C'mon, kid," he said. "We don't have all night."

"I don't think we're supposed to go up there," I said warily.

"Who cares?" he laughed. "Hey, maybe we'll get a glimpse of that so-called Shadow Sage. I thought I saw 'er once when I was up there…"

Before Brock could finish, a distant but terrifying whooshing sound suddenly erupted from the other side of the graveyard. I jumped up, startled, and instinctively ran behind Brock to hide. "What was that?" I whispered fearfully.

"I don't know," Brock replied, his eyes wide. "It… it was probably just the wind. Yeah," he confirmed unconvincingly, "it's the wind. Anyway, are you gonna come up or not? It's a great place. A little dark and creepy, but you ain't afraid of that stuff, are ya?"

"No," I replied, shifting my eyes worriedly. "I'd just… rather not go up there."

Brock stared at me for a few moments, his face expressionless. Then, it suddenly softened and he said, "Alrighty. I won't make you go. I s'pose you're a little too young, anyways."

I looked up at him, surprised. "T-Thank you," I said softly. I watched as he plopped down and the ground and leaned against the fence behind him. He stared blankly ahead for a while, and I was too afraid to break the silence that had suddenly come between us. I fidgeted and glanced around nervously. I suddenly squinted, thinking that I could see something moving in the distance, but Brock chose that moment to speak.

"When do you reckon you're movin' back into your castle?" he asked me.

"Uh… I'm not sure," I replied. "In a couple of years, I guess."

"Have you seen how it's comin' along?"

I shook my head. Mother never let me venture out of the village. I had only been in Hyrule Field a few times in my life, and I could hardly remember anything about it.

"Well, I'll tell you…it's looking' pretty nice so far," Brock said. "I went down there a few weeks ago, and I saw it. It's gettin' big, you know."

"Oh," I said. I sat down across from him, cross-legged on the ground.

We talked a bit longer, with him doing most of the talking, of course. He asked me many questions; however, none pertained to the subject of Link and my mother, for which I was grateful. He asked what I was interested in, and although he occasionally went back to taunting me about various things, I found myself thinking that he wasn't so bad after all.

After a while, he revealed to me what it was like to live under the rule of Ganondorf. He had been very young, but he remembered quite clearly how much he and his father had suffered after his mother was killed by one of Ganondorf's minions. He suddenly became quiet as he spoke of this.

"My pap was never the same after that," he said somberly, his dark eyes staring emptily off into the distance. "He started visitin' the tavern, sometimes not returning for days. And we always had to watch out for the monsters, 'cause they were everywhere. Moblins, Poes, Redeads…you name it. Everyone lived in fear of them, and of Ganondorf." He paused, again taking a moment to stare at me intently.

"You really don't know about the rumors, do you?" he asked me. I gazed at him, confused. I shook my head. What was he talking about?

He scratched his head thoughtfully, furrowing his brow. "Damn, I thought you'da figured it out by now. I reckon your mama really don't want you to know…"

"What?" I asked impatiently. "Know what?"

He hesitated. "I shouldn't be the one to tell you…"

"I want to know!" I cried. "Tell me what?"

But before he could answer, another horrifying whooshing sound suddenly rang out from the middle of the graveyard, and I heard what sounded like an evil cackle. Brock leapt to his feet, and I whipped around to see some sort of apparition floating through the graveyard. It looked to me like a giant blob of purple and black, but as it came closer I could make out two devilish eyes and stubby arms. It carried a lantern and swung it around madly, making the light flash in my eyes.

"Oh, shit…" Brock muttered beside me. He suddenly grabbed my arm and yanked me to the side, breaking into a run. "Run! It's a Poe!" he screamed at me, pushing me ahead of him.

I nearly stumbled to the ground because of the strong force of Brock's pushing, but the adrenaline pumping through me kept me going. We dashed to the right, heading around the outside boundaries of the graveyard because the Poe was blocking the pathway leading to the exit.

As I approached the opposite fence, I glanced back to see that Brock was not with me. I started to panic and ran back to search for him. I found him on the ground, his bare foot stuck underneath a tree root that had grown up through the ground. I hurriedly ran to him and desperately tried to help pull his leg out. He moaned in pain, and I saw that his ankle was bent at a sickening angle.

"Run, kid! Go! Get out of here!" Brock shouted at me. I hesitated before shaking my head vigorously and proceeding to pull at his arms with all of my limited strength. The Poe was quickly approaching, his maniacal laughter growing louder.

"You've got to go! Go get help! Just get the hell out of here!" Brock screamed, yanking his arms from my grasp and violently pushing me forward. "GO!"

With one last glance at him, I sprinted down the hill and out of the graveyard, the Poe's laughter and Brock's screams trailing behind me.

"Help!" I screamed frantically as I ran. "Somebody! Please help him!"

A few windows of random houses lit up in the night as I flew past them. I headed toward my house, thinking that my mother would surely know what to do.

"Mama!" I gasped as I burst through the door. "Help, Mama! It's Brock… he's stuck! And there's a Poe…"

Everything that happened immediately after that has become a complete blur in my mind. It's a wonder that I can even recall the event itself in so much detail, because it was so traumatizing to me as a child. I was made to wait in the house while my mother went to fetch the soldiers, so that they could go find out what was going on.

After waiting for what seemed like hours, I heard the door open, and I turned to see my mother slip in. Her eyes were wide with horror and she was embracing herself tightly. She slowly fixed her eyes on me.

"I'm sorry, Kiran," she whispered, and a tear rolled down her cheek. "The boy was killed."

I sort of went into shock then. All I can remember is falling asleep a while after that, and waking a few hours later to hear a loud commotion in the kitchen.

"Who the hell do you think you are, bringing that little bastard here and letting him live like a normal kid?!" I heard a man shout hysterically. "I'll tell you what, you shoulda gotten rid of that… that monster when it was born!" I cautiously opened one eye, seeing Brock's father screaming at my mother, who was clutching a handkerchief fearfully. It was still quite dark outside.

I then heard my mother's soft voice, sounding quite distraught. "Please, sir, my son is sleeping…"

"I don't care!" Brock's father screamed. He began to sob in his anguish. "That demon-child killed _my _son! My only son, my only family…"

By now, my mother was crying, too. "I'm sorry," she whispered, "but I'm sure this is just a misunderstanding. Kiran wouldn't…"

"Of course he would!" Brock's father interjected, and he roughly grabbed her by the arm. "Just look at who he is! Are you being ignorant, or are you just plain stupid?!"

"That's no way to speak to the Queen," a new voice cut in. We all turned to see Link standing in front of the doorway. His face was calm, yet anyone could tell that he was furious. Brock's father froze immediately in fear, and my teary-eyed mother gasped in relief.

"I'll ask you to get your hands off her Highness, and don't even think about touching her again," Link commanded threateningly. Brock's father immediately complied and backed away.

"Now leave," Link told him. Glaring at him and my mother, Brock's father reluctantly stumbled out of the house, slamming the door brusquely behind him. I trembled in my bed as Link rushed to comfort my mother, both of them completely forgetting about me for the moment.

'Why did Brock have to die?' I asked myself despairingly, tears springing to my eyes. He had barely known me, yet he had saved my life. He was the very last person I would have suspected to commit such an act of bravery. I had just begun to become friends with this misunderstood boy, and in a flash he was taken away, murdered before he had had the chance to truly live.

I'll never understand Fate's plan for the lost souls of the past. It seems to me like such a terrible waste of potential life.

The rest of that day dragged on endlessly. I remained in bed, buried deep under the covers, thankful for once to be forgotten by the world. I vaguely heard snippets of conversations throughout the day.

"Where'd it come from? I just don't understand it. We haven't seen any monsters around here since Ganondorf…"

"He wouldn't lie about such a thing. He isn't like his father…"

Later, I awoke to a painful grumbling in my stomach and realized that I was absolutely famished. I slowly slipped out from under my covers and got out of bed. I didn't see Link or my mother anywhere in the house, so I assumed they had gone off together as usual. Glancing out the window, I could see the sun setting behind the horizon far off to the West, and I headed toward the kitchen to look for something to eat.

As I entered, I gasped sharply, and I felt my stomach tighten. Someone was in the kitchen, facing the opposite wall. It only took me a moment to realize that it was Brock's father.

I quietly crept into the room to find him staring blankly ahead, as if he was in complete shock. At first, I thought he must not have even noticed I was there. He spoke before I could utter a syllable.

"My son," he whispered, keeping his eerily empty look. His eyes seemed to regain their focus as he turned slowly to look at me. Madness danced behind his eyes.

"You," he croaked, his lower lip trembling. "You… murderer. They... they should have killed you when you were born, you… you demon!"

I could do nothing but stare in shock as he shouted at me. I had no idea what he was talking about, but the insane look in his eyes frightened me beyond belief.

He staggered toward me, and I could see the veins popping out of his neck. I backed up as far as I could, until I could feel the solid, icy wall behind me.

"You… spawn of evil!" he screamed, his bloodshot eyes growing wider. I barely had time to cry out before his big hands wrapped around my neck and tightened, choking off my air.

"Filthy Gerudo!" he continued to scream as I struggled desperately to pull his hands off. But I was not near strong enough to make him release his iron grip, fueled by his despair for the loss of his only son.

I tried to scream, tried to make any kind of noise, but nothing came out. I could feel myself beginning to lose consciousness, but all of a sudden, I felt his grip loosen around my neck, and I was abruptly dropped to the ground. I wearily glanced up to see Link standing over Brock's father, lying still on the floor. For a short moment, I was sure that he was dead, but I could see that he was still breathing. Link had struck his head with the hilt of his sword and knocked him unconscious.

He said nothing, and his face revealed nothing as he slid his sword back on his belt. He quickly glanced at me, nodded once, and then quietly walked out of the room.

And I was all alone once again.

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A/N: Hey, I forgot earlier, thanks a lot for the reviews! So very nice of all you people to read and review! Do it again! Please? (This includes you, Mr. Valinor)


	4. Predestined Foe

A/N: Terribly sorry about the long wait. I've been extremely busy with marching band and homework and haven't been able to work on this hardly at all. I have another two weeks of band, and then it's over, so I'll try to get working harder on it then. Anyway, again, please review!

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Predestined Foe

About a year passed since Brock's death, and I never even went near his part of the village again. I never saw Brock's father again, either. Everyone agreed to put the past behind them and move on with life. But the villagers' animosity toward me became dramatically more noticeable as time dragged on. The only thing that didn't change was my friendship with Arvin. He believed me and supported me the entire time. However, I began to get the feeling that his grandmother didn't approve of him seeing me, but I didn't dwell on it.

Yes, we were living rather peacefully considering the circumstances. That is, until one day when the fragile peace was shattered by the vile Link.

I had just returned from one of my daily rampages of the village with Arvin. We had just played a little prank on the beggar man who lived behind a wooden crate. It was one of those rare times in my childhood when I truly felt free and careless. Still giggling, I charged through the doorway of our home and slammed the door behind me. When I paused to catch my breath and wipe the sweat off of my forehead, I noticed Link and my mother standing together, both staring at me as if I were a complete stranger. They were holding hands, and I immediately stopped smiling.

My mother broke away from him and grinned widely. I could see tears streaming down her face.

"Oh, darling, I'm so glad you're here. Something wonderful has happened!" she exclaimed, hugging me and kissing the top of my head.

I kept my straight face. "What?" I asked, my voice sounding rather tedious for a six-year-old.

She wiped the tears from her eyes and thrust her hand in front of my face, showing off a new ring on her finger. Pure joy and excitement danced in her eyes as she spoke. "Link proposed!" she said, holding up her left hand. On her ring finger was a silver ring with a tiny blue sapphire. It was so simple-looking, yet she regarded it as if it were the Triforce itself. "He asked me to marry him! Kiran, you're going to have a father!"

I stared at her angrily. "My father is dead. You told me."

Her smile faded somewhat. "Yes, yes, of course. But… you see, Link will be your stepfather."

I glanced at Link, standing there with a look that appeared to me as a look of self-satisfaction. Suddenly, I wanted nothing more than to wipe that smug grin off of his face.

"He's no father of mine," I said through clenched teeth, pivoting and running toward the door.

"Kiran!" I heard my mother cry after me.

"Let him go," I heard Link mutter before I slammed the door behind me. It wouldn't be the last time I slammed the door on them.

Full of anger and anxious to get as far away from the house as I could, I sprinted aimlessly past the neighbor's houses, not entirely sure where I was going. There were no really secluded areas in the village at this time of day. So I headed toward the one place I hadn't been to for over a year.

I entered the graveyard, relieved to see that no one else was currently there. It was eerily silent, the overcast sky enhanced the gloomy atmosphere. I cringed slightly as I walked past Brock's grave, remembering the guilt I had felt and was still feeling. I continued toward the back of the graveyard, where I sat beneath the giant tombstone of the Royal Family of Hyrule.

'How could she do this to me?' my mind screamed. She knew that I didn't get along with Link. At least, I thought she knew. Perhaps she simply hadn't noticed?

No, I thought. It was too obvious. Link clearly held no warm feelings toward me, nor I toward him. How could she not see it?

A stray tear slid down my cheek and I angrily wiped it away. Now I would be forced to share my mother's love with Link every single day. I wasn't ready for that yet. Couldn't she have at least waited a little bit longer?

However, I had to admit that it was obvious that they were very much in love, and had been for a long time. Who was I to keep them apart?

With that thought, I reluctantly trudged back home, where my mother greeted me with a hug. She surprisingly didn't seem angry, and it appeared as though Link had left.

"Are you all right?" she asked me, and I nodded. She helped me prepare for bed and tucked me in before speaking again.

"I'm sorry, Kiran," she said softly, sitting on my bed. "I know it's very sudden and it came as a shock to you. I shouldn't have told you without warning like that. But… Link's a wonderful person, and I know he'll be a wonderful father. That's why I'm marrying him," she told me.

"He doesn't like me," I protested.

"Oh, Kiran, that's not true," she said. "He likes you... he really does. It's just... you see, honey, Link just has trouble expressing his emotions. He likes to keep them inside. That's just the way he is. The way he's always been." She stopped, staring off in the distance with a soft smile. "I love him," she said softly.

I grimaced, a question burning in the back of my mind. "But what about my real father?" I asked quietly.

My mother's smile disappeared, and she shifted her eyes away. "What about him?"

"Didn't you love him?" I asked.

She hesitated for a moment, staring wide-eyed at me. "I..." she began, her lower lip quivering slightly. "Yes, I... of course I did, honey. But... well, I was very young, and I didn't know him as long as I've known Link…" She trailed off.

"Do I have to call him Father?" I asked, grimacing again.

She smiled. "No, you can still refer to him as Link. But I hope that with time you'll start to think of him as your father."

She kissed me on the forehead and blew out the candle. As she crawled into her bed, I couldn't help but think about her words and feel a little hopeful. Could Link be the one person I had always needed in my life? Could he be a father to me?

But my hopes were destroyed before the night was over. For my dreams that night wiped away all hope that I might have had and replaced it with a newly refueled hatred towards Link.

Something was stirring within my soul; something dark and sinister. Voices, low and ominous, were haunting my dreams, and though I could not understand what they were saying, the message was clear.

Link was the enemy. And he was to be eliminated at all costs.


	5. The Royal Wedding

A/N: Well, marching band is now over, so I suppose I'll have more time to work on this. That is, until my mom makes me get a job :( . Anyway, thank you again for the reviews!

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The Royal Wedding

We moved into the completed North Tower of the castle when I was nine years old. We left our old lives completely behind, and prepared to begin anew, as my mother would optimistically tell me. Link and my mother had decided to wait until after we had settled in to have their wedding, which was just fine with me.

That is, until that accursed day arrived.

I had never seen my mother more excited about anything in my entire life. It seemed as though a smile was frozen on her face, for I never saw her without one throughout those months. With the help of her newly hired handmaidens, she happily planned the event, fiercely concentrating on every single detail. Link, on the other hand, was quite the opposite. In fact, he didn't seem too excited about it at all. Not that he had ever shown any emotion for anything before.

Their wedding was to be held at the Temple of Time. The wedding was not to be an extremely large event, as the Temple of Time could only fit so many, but there was to be a tremendous festival held afterward to celebrate their marriage and the homecoming of the Queen of Hyrule.

Link and my mother had a mutual agreement on how Hyrule was to be ruled. Because of the fact that my mother had had diplomatic training and was the true heir to the throne, she would take the role of the ruler of Hyrule, and because of Link's status and lack of experience in this area, he would stand by her side to support her and offer his opinion if he so chose. This, of course, went against the ancient tradition of having a man as ruler, but my mother felt that Hyrule was ready for a slight change in policy. She firmly claimed that it would make no difference otherwise.

On the morning of the event, I was sent to Link's room to help him prepare, while my mother's maids and female friends helped her. I sprawled out lazily on the bed as I watched Link dress himself.

Ugh, I thought grudgingly, rolling my eyes. Why did I have to be there? It wasn't as if he needed my help anyway. He was a grown man, for Goddesses' sake; he could get dressed by his own damn self.

I nearly burst out laughing when Link had finished and began to examine himself in the mirror. He looked completely out of place in rich garments of royal blue, adorned with gold trimmings and a red silk sash and cape. His messy golden locks hung in his eyes, and the rebellious effect that his earrings had always provided him with was lost. I hastily covered my mouth with my hand to hold back my laughter.

Link scowled at his reflection. "I feel like an ass," he muttered to no one in particular, and I buried my face in a pillow to stifle my giggling once again.

My mother, on the other hand, didn't look nearly as awkward and uncomfortable as Link. On the contrary; I had never seen her look more beautiful. Her elegant white wedding dress fit her form perfectly, and was intricately designed with elaborate patterns of lace and jewels. Silver ribbons had been woven through her golden cascade of curls, and her rosy cheeks contrasted brilliantly with her pale, porcelain skin.

I stood beside Link as I watched her walk down the aisle. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Link gasp and his eyes widen as he stared in awe. She looked more like an angel than anything, and even seemed to float toward us. She walked alone, for her father had been murdered by Ganondorf long ago and she had no one to give her away. But still she smiled jubilantly, appearing perfectly calm and collected.

The ceremony was conducted by a priest named Rauru, a good friend of my mother's. I would learn later that he was the actual Sage of Light, and that he spent nearly all of his days in the Sacred Realm, watching over the seal that now held Ganondorf inside. From the way he smiled and nodded at Link, I could see he approved of the match. However, when his eyes shifted to me, I swore I saw him shiver and cringe before he looked away quickly, which put me in an even more sour mood than before.

My mind drifted as they performed the rituals, and before I knew it, festive music rang in my ears to announce that it was done. Relieved, I leapt into a carriage before Link and my mother could find me, and it carried me back to the castle alone. And instead of preparing for the festival, I trotted toward the back of the castle and exited through the unguarded back door, for most of the guards had been called to work security at the wedding.

I stared for a long moment at the spectacle before me. Mountains of rubble towered above, blocking the sunlight and drowning the area in shadows. This was the wreckage yet to be cleared out by the workers. These were the remains of Ganondorf's castle, destroyed years ago as a last attempt to annihilate Link and my mother.

They had not told me that all of this was still here. My curiosity got the best of me and I ventured further into the ruins. I bent down and began to examine the rubble. Most of it was not recognizable and I was unable to guess what it had once been apart of. Plunging my hand in deeper, I flinched as I felt something tear through my skin. I wrenched my hand back to see that I had been cut deeply on my wrist by a colorful piece of stained glass. I moved the glass aside and went deeper.

Suddenly, I managed to grasp something solid and smooth-feeling. I carefully pulled the object out and began to study it. I gasped in horror as I realized what it was.

It was a bone. From what I could not determine, but the shock registered within me and I threw it back, scrambling back to the castle as fast as my little legs could carry me.

As soon I was inside, I slammed the heavy wooden door behind me and sighed in relief. I had always felt I was safe as long as I was inside the castle. The same feeling held true for me now, but I couldn't help lingering over my terrifying discovery.

To whom did that bone belong? What terrible fate had he or she met?

As I walked through the dimly lit corridor, I decided that I didn't desire to know.


	6. Abduction

A/N: This chapter's a bit longer to make up for my negligence. Had a bit of a case of writer's block, too; actually, I'm still in the middle of it L . But I'll try harder because of all the wonderful reviews I'm getting! Thanks!

Oh yeah, and Link isn't evil in this story. He's just not much of a talker and doesn't like to show affection much, especially for Ganondorf's son. Wouldn't you find it a bit difficult to be friendly to your arch enemy's son? Anyway, you'll find out more about Link and why he acts the way he does as the story moves on.

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Abduction

I finally learned the truth on my tenth birthday. The truth about my father, and about me.

That morning began normally enough. I awoke just as the sun was peeking over the horizon to the East, behind Death Mountain. Remembering my mother's promises of wonderful birthday gifts, I dashed to her and Link's room to wake her up.

I was happily eating breakfast when Link entered the dining room, transforming my mood without hesitation. He was dressed in those same damn green forest clothes he always wore, and I frowned, feeling suddenly irritated by him as he sat at the end of the table.

Fortunately, my mother walked in not too soon after, wearing a soft blue gown and looking lovely, as usual.

"Well, you're ten years old today," she said sweetly, leaning over to kiss me on the cheek. "Happy birthday, Kiran."

"Mama, can I go to the market today?" I asked eagerly.

"Yes, of course," she replied. "Link, will you take him?"

Oh, no, I remember thinking. I would rather have not gone at all than suffer spending awkward and uncomfortable hours with Mr. Hero.

Link looked at her, expressionless. I could easily tell that he was as indignant about going with me as I was about going with him. "Sure," he said, sounding much more positive than he felt, I'm certain, for Mother's sake. "Well, go get ready," he directed at me.

I reluctantly did as I was told and we headed to the market. I always loved going to the market and seeing people, real people, going about their everyday lives. I hardly ever noticed when they paused to stare at me contemptuously. If I even so much as questioned it, my mother would quickly lead me into a nearby store and buy me anything I wanted, once again pushing away the truth about me and building upon the mass of lies surrounding us.

When Link and I arrived, he gave me the usual lecture about staying close to him and not bothering anyone else. Needless to say, as soon as I had the opportunity, I bolted.

"Kiran!" Link's voice died away as I ducked into an alley and wound my way through the maze of streets. After I was sure I had lost him, I sat on a wooden crate in a corner to catch my breath. Leaning back and chuckling to myself, I did not notice the dark shadows approaching me until it was too late.

I sprung up from the crate as soon as I realized their intentions. But before I could even cry out, they violently seized me by the arms and pulled me into the closest building.

I was thrown onto the ground roughly, and I heard the door slam shut as I was enveloped in darkness. I could hear my heart pounding in my ears as I struggled to see through the pitch blackness.

"Alright kid, we ain't gonna hurt ya," I heard a deep voice said. A small flame sparked to life to reveal a tall and young-looking man in a dark cloak. He smirked, the flame creating shadows that danced on his face. "Unless you don't do what we ask." He lit a lantern, lighting up the room. I could now see another rather hefty man beside him, who chuckled as he looked at me. All of a sudden he paused, his eyes widening as he stared.

"Holy Din! It's... it's the prince!" he exclaimed, pointing at me excitedly. I raised my eyebrows at him and lifted my chin, which was a mistake, for it seemed to confirm his statement.

The two men broke into a chorus of incessant chatter.

"Are you sure?"

"'Course I'm sure! We hit the jackpot!"

"This is our lucky day!"

I stood there impatiently and crossed my arms in front of my chest, becoming quickly irritated with the two jokers, as I thought of them. I cleared my throat loudly, and they stopped to stare at me, grinning like fools.

"The Gerudo have been looking for you," the tall one said finally. "Hell if I know what they want wit' you, but they promised a hefty reward to whoever brings you to 'em."

"Gerudo?" I questioned, frowning. "No way. I'm not going."

They laughed mockingly. "_You _don't have a choice, little man," the fat one taunted.

I learned, then and there, that people on the outside world were not so keen to simply take my commands. The numerous servants that had been hired to tend to our every need at the castle would never think to challenge my authority in any way. Clearly, I had no power outside the protective walls of the castle, and I learned that the hard way.

I soon found myself riding uncomfortably on the back of a horse, in front of the tall, thin man. I hadn't gone quietly, and the consequences included a swift smack in the head with the hilt of an ax, knocking me unconscious. Never before had I so detested my small size than right then.

"Ah, the lil' one woke up," the man holding me muttered. I glanced up to see him grinning wickedly. "Just in time, too. We're approaching Gerudo Valley."

I looked in front of us to see that we were indeed very near to the dreaded Gerudo Valley. The sun was beginning to sink into the horizon, and the gorges nearby cast shadows onto us as we passed through them, enveloping us in an ominous darkness.

The heavy man rode on the horse beside us, smiling dumbly to himself. "Hey, Jaegar!" he shouted suddenly, and pointed off in the distance. "There she is!"

I looked toward the direction he pointed and squinted. Soon I spotted a dark figure clad in a long cloak standing off to the side of the road and holding a long scimitar in one hand.

"Ah… good," the man holding me replied. I assumed he was the one called Jaegar. He pulled back on the reigns, and the horse came to an abrupt stop in front of the mysterious, cloaked figure.

"Er… 'ello Miss… Gerudo lady… uh, ma'am," Jaegar stuttered anxiously. The figure did not move an inch or acknowledge Jaegar in any way. He glanced back at his comrade on the other horse.

"Caine, what the hell is wrong with 'er?" he asked nervously.

The hefty man shrugged uselessly and shook his head. He slowly moved forward and waved his stubby hand in front of her face.

"What do you want?" the Gerudo snapped at him.

Caine flinched and backed up defensively. "We got the Prince," he replied nervously. "You know, the one y'all…"

"I know!" she suddenly hissed. She glanced at me, smirking with satisfaction. "Yes. This is the one," she said softly, nodding to herself. "I can see it."

I instinctively grabbed Jaegar's arm, suddenly very afraid of the Gerudo woman. He hastily yanked me off, and then turned back to the woman. "So what about our reward? We brought the little runt right to ya, just like y'all said to…"

"Fine, fine!" she replied angrily, reluctantly taking her eyes off of me. "Follow me," she told them, and turned and quietly crept along the road toward the Gerudo Fortress. Suddenly, she turned to the right and led us along what appeared to be a secret passageway into the fortress from the back. Jaegar pulled me along by the arm, squeezing it tightly and making me more anxious than ever.

We entered a dark tunnel, dimly lit by the lighted torch carried by the Gerudo woman. I could see the shadows of rats scurrying along the floor and hear the sound of bats flapping their wings. After a while the tunnel ended and we entered a larger chamber.

"You hunters remain here," the Gerudo ordered Caine and Jaegar. "I must show the boy to our leader." She grabbed me roughly by the arm and led me to another room full of Gerudo women. They all stood straight and stiff, their eyes staring blankly ahead. Each of them held a long scimitar, which obviously did not help lesson my anxiety in the slightest.

A moment later, an older-looking Gerudo woman entered the room. She wore white, and her red hair was cut short, just below her chin. From the way the other Gerudo woman began bowing before her, I got the impression that she was higher on the Gerudo social ladder.

"Leave us," she commanded with an authoritative tone. All of the other Gerudo women quickly tiptoed out of the room, leaving me completely alone with the elder Gerudo woman.

"Prince Kiran Harkinian," she proclaimed as she studied me head to toe. "Or should I say, Kiran Dragmire," she added, grinning maliciously.

I glared at her and narrowed my eyes. "What are you talking about?" I asked, trying to sound tough, but failing miserably with my unstable, childish voice.

She twisted her mouth in disgust. "That woman has been telling you lies your entire life, my dear."

I stared at her, confused. "Huh? Who?"

"The Princess… or Queen, whatever. You know, Zelda!" she replied angrily. "Has she ever told you anything about your father? About _you_?"

"My father is dead," I replied nonchalantly.

She smirked, fueling my anger further. "He's far from dead," she remarked. "He may not be with us in this world, but his presence is everywhere." She opened her arms and gestured around the room. Her eyes had a dreamy look in them as they wandered around the room and came to a stop on me. "Especially within you."

I felt a cold shiver suddenly run down my spine as she said this. She seemed to sense that she had frightened me, for she smiled and nodded knowingly.

"And now you are here with us, where you belong," she continued. "Now you will fulfill your destiny as the King of the Gerudo. You will follow in Ganondorf's footsteps, and complete the tasks he himself set out to do."

This woman was beginning to scare me. I got the idea that she might not be completely sane. "Look, lady, my momma will pay you whatever you want…" I began.

"You were not brought here for that," she snapped. "Don't you understand? You weren't brought here so that we could beg the Queen for some silly ransom. You are _not _going back. This is your new home, and you shall be taught our ways and the ways of dark magic. First of all, I want you to forget anything you have ever been told regarding the Triforce and Ganondorf."

My heartbeat quickened as I began to panic. This was moving far too fast. Hadn't I been in the castle with Link and my mother just this morning? And now, some crazy Gerudo lady was telling me that I would never see them again?

"Oh, by the way, my name is Gunda," she told me. "I am, more or less, the leader of the Gerudo rebels. We are the only remaining Gerudo followers of Lord Ganondorf."

I narrowed my eyes. Link had mentioned to my mother one day that he suspected Ganondorf still had some followers who remained loyal to him. He was right, I noted.

"I don't want to live here," I said obstinately, looking at her in disgust. "I hate Ganondorf, and I hate the Gerudo. Take me home _now_."

Gunda raised an eyebrow and curled her lips. "You don't seem to understand, little one," she replied dangerously. "You are not in the position to order us around nor to insult us. Quite the contrary, in fact. So I suggest you bite your tongue and do everything you are told here, because you will never see your precious castle again." She paused, her intense glare softening just barely. "Anyway, you don't really want to go back. You think you do now, but once you've been away from the Queen and the Hero for a while, you'll thank us for rescuing you."

"You're mad," I retorted. "I'll never thank you for anything." Before I could stop them, tears sprang to my eyes. I hastily wiped them away with my fist, but she noticed.

"I see," Gunda said softly, tilting her head sideways as she observed me. "You have become attached to them; to Zelda and the Hero. But that will go away with time. Listen, they don't want you there. The truth is… they fear you. They know who you are, and that frightens them more than anything in the world."

"You lie," I murmured angrily.

"Say whatever you want," she replied, not phased in the slightest. "But deep down, you know what I say is true. The only reason they keep you there is so that we, the few remaining followers of Lord Ganondorf, can't get our hands on you. They knew that that would be far too dangerous, so they keep you within the walls of the castle to protect you from outside influences like us. But they made the mistake of turning their heads away for a moment, and the very thing they feared most has happened. And now you are here with us, in your new home."

"No," I said, shaking my head unconvincingly. I was so confused and lost as I began to piece everything together in my mind. My heart fell as I realized what she meant. "No, no…" I muttered, my eyes growing wide as I placed my hand over my mouth in shock. "Ganondorf… is _not_… he can't be…"

"He _is_," she inserted. "Ganondorf is _your father_."

No, I thought stubbornly. It doesn't make any sense. She's mad; she's lost her mind.

However, before I could protest, a rather young looking Gerudo woman entered the room. Gunda turned and grunted angrily.

"I told you, no interruptions!" Gunda screamed furiously at her.

The girl bowed nervously. "I apologize, milady, but the hunters are growing impatient. They insist on seeing you."

She grunted with irritation. "Fine, fine, send them in," she commanded with a wave of her hand.

However, it wasn't the bounty hunters who showed up next. Instead, a mysterious, older-looking Gerudo woman stood in the doorway, trembling with anger. Her long, fiery red hair was pulled back away from her face and fastened with a pink jewel. Something about her set her apart from the other Gerudo women I had seen so far.

"Nabooru," Gunda whispered, a look of panic suddenly crossing her features.

Nabooru. Now where had I heard that name before?

"Yes," Nabooru said, frowning and crossing her arms in front of her breasts. "Me."

And then I suddenly recalled that Nabooru was the name of one of the Seven Sages. She was of the Gerudo race, meaning that she must be the Sage of Spirit.

I was saved.


	7. The Truth

The Truth

Gunda shifted nervously under Nabooru's intense glare. "I… he…" she began.

"Don't bother trying to explain yourself," Nabooru interrupted. "I am absolutely appalled at you, Gunda."

Gunda suddenly straightened her back and held her chin up high. "I don't know why you're so surprised. We have been worshipping our Lord Ganondorf for years behind your back. Now, at last, we have been discovered. So… how _did_ you find out anyway?"

"Oh, I have my sources," Nabooru told her. "Do you think I simply ignore my people and lounge around the temple all day long or something? I have always managed to keep an eye on what's going on outside. I should have imprisoned you long ago, when you first started acting up."

"You traitor," Gunda hissed. "The ancient laws set by our ancestors specifically ordered that we always remain loyal to the one King. You defied Lord Ganondorf, and now _look _what has happened! He is gone, and we are without a king!"

"What is your point, Gunda? We can manage by ourselves perfectly fine while we wait for the next king to be born."

"Yes, so you can betray him as well!" Gunda cried. "We could have ruled all of Hyrule had it not been for you joining that wretched boy against our king! I will never, ever forgive you for that! Never!" She continued to spit out threats as she was led away.

Nabooru turned and rolled her eyes. "Break my heart," she muttered. After a moment she glanced at me and hurriedly rushed over and knelt beside me.

"You all right, kid?" she asked me, brushing me off and looking me over. "They didn't hurt you, did they?" she added with a hint of anger in her voice as she examined me.

"Nah," I replied, shaking my head and puffing my chest out. It was painfully obvious that I was trying to look tough. She snickered and ruffled my hair playfully.

"You a tough guy, huh?" she teased, giving me a playful punch on the arm.

"Yeah," I replied proudly, lifting my arm and flexing to show my muscles, or in my case, lack there of. "Just like my father," I said without thought, thinking about all the stories my mother had told me about my father. Then I suddenly recalled what the Gerudo rebels had said about my father. Could they be telling the truth?

When I glanced at Nabooru, I noticed that her smile had vanished and she was now studying me with a concerned look.

"Well, we better get you home, Highness," she said quickly, smiling weakly. "And don't worry about them," she added, gesturing toward the other Gerudo rebel women, now surrounded by Nabooru's Gerudo guards. "They will be punished for what they have done, I assure you."

She held my hand and walked me out to their stables, where they kept their fine Gerudo black stallions. She saddled one up, and we were off. The midnight blue sky was beginning to lighten, and by the time we were approaching the castle gates, the sun was peeking out over the horizon. I suddenly felt extremely exhausted from the day's events, and I dozed off, only to be awakened by my mother's shrieks of joy.

Nabooru hopped off the horse and helped me down. I turned to see my mother, tears streaming down her face. Link stood behind her, his arms crossed in front of his chest. He wore the same stern expression that he always had, even in times like these.

"Oh, Goddesses," Mother gasped. "Kiran!" She ran to me, kneeling down and wrapping her arms around me tightly. "Oh, my darling. I was so worried." She hastily stroked my head and showered me with kisses.

"Thank you, Nabooru," I heard Link say. "This means so much to us."

She grinned slyly. "Ah, no problem, Link. Don't worry about it."

"Yes," my mother said, standing up but still clasping my hand. "Thank you so much. How can we ever repay you?"

Nabooru bowed. "I was merely doing my duty, Your Highness. And I assure you that the men and women responsible for this will be taken care of." She shook Link's hand, that impish smirk still on her face.

"Mama," I said anxiously, tugging on her sleeve. Chuckling, she turned away from Link and Nabooru's conversation and bent down to my height, smiling through her tears.

"Yes, honey?"

"One of the Gerudo ladies said that Ganondorf was my father," I told her bluntly.

I saw her suddenly stiffen, her eyes widening. "Th-they told you that?" she asked, fear emanating from her eyes. I nodded.

"I got really mad and I told them that wasn't true, but they said that it was and that it was why they took me," I tried to explain.

She placed her hand on her chest and breathed heavily. "Oh, Goddesses," she whispered.

"Who is my father, Mama?" I asked, not acknowledging her clearly shocked demeanor. She did not answer - just stared as if she were reliving a nightmare.

"It's not true, is it Mama?" I asked, feeling angry and frustrated at her for not answering me.

"Link," she muttered suddenly. Her eyes widened even more. "Link!" she managed to cry out before her eyes started to roll back.

"Zelda!" Link cried, leaping to her aid. He caught her as she stumbled backwards and fainted in his arms.

"Mama!" I screamed angrily, charging at Link and clenching my hands into fists. I pummeled him, willing him to let go of my mother. I had to know the answer. I _had _to know.

Link stared at me indifferently as I screamed and beat him uselessly; I could not hurt him no matter how hard I tried. Suddenly, I felt strong arms grab me from behind and pick me up as if I weighed no more than a feather.

"No!" I screamed as I was carried away, squirming and kicking the entire way back into the castle, up the stairwell, and into my bedchambers. I was placed gently on the bed, and I whipped around to find Impa, the Sage of Shadow, staring back at me. I had only met with Impa on two occasions before this, when my mother had needed her for something or other. I glared at her confusedly.

"I came here to help search for you," she explained. "And to support your mother in her time of need. Now relax, Kiran. You've been through quite an ordeal." She turned away and headed for the door to give me my privacy.

Impa had been my mother's beloved caretaker when she was younger. She had protected my mother from Ganondorf and hid her from him for seven years while the Hero of Time slept. Thinking of Ganondorf suddenly reminded me of the question burning in the back of my mind.

"Wait! Impa, what's going on?" I asked her anxiously. She turned to face me, a very serious expression on her face.

"Your mother is going through a difficult time," she replied, stepping into my room. "She's remembering the past, reliving memories that she has tried hard to forget over the years."

"Huh?"

She sighed. "Do not fret, child. Your mother will be all right," she said, looking away thoughtfully.

"What about the Gerudo lady? She said that Ganondorf was my father. That can't be right." I paused, scratching my head. "Can it?" I asked.

Impa remained silent, that pensive look still on her face. After a moment, I wondered if she had even heard me.

"Impa?"

"It's true," she finally said. "Ganondorf is your biological father." I felt my heartbeat quicken. It was true?

"But... but that can't be," I protested. "Mommy hated Ganondorf. She told me-"

"She wanted to protect you," Impa interrupted. "But I think it is time for you to know the truth." She sighed and rubbed her temples, preparing herself to finally reveal something to me.

"You know that Link and your mother were in the Temple of Time when she revealed herself to him, and that Ganondorf had been waiting there and discovered her. He took her to his castle and there she remained until Link came and defeated Ganondorf. Well, in the meantime, Ganondorf... took advantage of her." Impa looked at me and lifted her eyebrows. "I know you know about the basics of the conception of a child and all that. But do you know what rape is?"

I shook my head. She explained to me briefly and cautiously what it was, and even then the mere thought of it sent shivers up my spine.

"Ganondorf did this to your mother before Link arrived at the castle," she said gravely. She shook her head. "It was a horrible deed he did. It nearly destroyed her."

My breath caught in my throat as I tried to understand what Impa was telling me. "Why?" I whispered.

She sighed. "No one really knows why. It has been assumed that he did it for his own sick pleasure, out of lust. Or perhaps he merely wished to torture her in that way." She furrowed her eyebrows and rested her chin on her hand. "But it just doesn't seem right," she said softly, almost to herself. "There must be something more..." She trailed off, shaking the thought away. "Anyway," she continued, looking at me, "she became pregnant with you, obviously."

I just stared at her as the words sunk in. Ganondorf Dragmire - the King of Evil, the single man everyone hated and feared the most - was _my_ father?

Suddenly, everything made sense to me. The people staring at me disapprovingly, the servants avoiding me, the guards never looking me in the eyes, and the friends I never had; it was all because they knew who I was. I now knew why my mother was so uneasy whenever I asked about my father. Why I looked so different from everyone else. Why Link always avoided me.

"I'll tell your parents that you know the truth now," Impa said as she stood up. She lightly placed her hand on my shoulder. "This doesn't change anything now, Kiran.," she told me firmly. "Your mother loves you very much, and she always will because you are _her_ child. I have to get back to the Shadow Temple now. Goodbye, Kiran." She exited the room, leaving me with innumerable questions swirling around in my young mind.

I supposed I couldn't blame anyone for treating me the way they did. After all, I was the son of the despicable Ganondorf. The thought was unfathomable to me. And if he had done that to my mother, why did she keep me? I wondered. But suddenly, a dark, ominous voice interrupted my thoughts.

Finally, you know the truth.

Terrified, I snapped my head up and looked around the room for the speaker. But no one was there. I stared at the wall for a long moment, convincing myself that I had imagined the voice. Finally, I slipped into bed and tried desperately to sleep. But the voice came to me one more time.

Finally, it can begin.

Shivering with fear, I shut my eyes tightly and prayed to the Goddesses to let me sleep.

This was some birthday, I thought.


	8. A Supposed Gift

A Supposed "Gift"

One morning, nearly two years after the kidnapping incident, my mother fell ill. Link, whom I felt was overreacting, sent out a messenger to fetch Impa.

Impa arrived within a few hours to examine my mother. As the last remaining member of the Sheikah race, Impa knew a few medical techniques that had been practiced by her people in the past. As she saw to my mother in her room, Link waited impatiently outside the door to give them privacy, and I, having absolutely nothing better to do, reluctantly waited with him.

After what felt like hours, Impa exited my mother's room, and closed the door quietly behind her. Link stood up abruptly beside me.

"So? What is it?" he asked impatiently.

Impa's face remained impassive. "She's pregnant," she said straightforwardly. I felt my heart suddenly skip a beat as I realized what this meant.

"Pre… pregnant?" Link stammered after a moment of shocked silence. "You mean, she… we…?"

Impa smirked. "Yes, Link," she said, nodding. "That means you're going to be a father. Again," she added quickly, her eyes briefly shifting towards me. "And Kiran is going to have a new sibling," she said, nodding at me.

"Yes, of course," Link muttered. "Can… can I see her now?"

"Yes," Impa confirmed. "Go on in."

Link opened the door and headed in, with me right behind him. I didn't particularly care if I was intruding on their "special moment" at the time. There was no way I was missing this.

"Zelda…" Link murmured, hesitating in front of the doorway. I peered around him to see my mother sitting up in bed, a bright smile lighting up her face.

"Link!" she cried, opening her arms wide. Link ran to her side and embraced her as she laughed with delight, her eyes sparkling.

My heart fell as I stared at the happy couple and realized what this meant. My mother was to have another child, one much younger than myself. Did this mean that I would receive less attention from her and Link? Not that I had ever been paid much attention to by Link in the first place, but still… it hurt.

Suddenly I heard a low, faint growl and an enraged voice. I couldn't quite make out what it was saying, only catching a few words:

Damn! ……_complicates everything_……_ descendant_……_kill_….

…………………. 

Shivering in fear, I glanced at Link and my mother to see if they had heard. But they hadn't apparently, as they were still embracing each other and proceeding to kiss each other.

Suddenly feeling nauseous, I ran out of the room into the empty hallway and listened for the voice. But I was met with an eerie silence instead, and eventually convinced myself that it must have been my overactive imagination.

For my twelfth birthday, and also to soften the blow of my mother's pregnancy, I received a unique gift a few weeks later. Link had summoned me to the courtyard, and I entered to find him standing anxiously in the center. Mother stood a few feet away, smiling encouragingly at me. Link approached me, an object covered with a cloth in his hands.

"Well, Kiran," he began, "this is my present to you." He glanced fleetingly toward Mother. "Your mother and I have decided that you are now old enough to wield it." He took the cloth off to reveal a short sword. "This was mine. I got it in Kokiri Forest when I was ten; right after I was summoned by the Great Deku Tree." He handed me the hilt.

I stared at it, rubbing the hilt and feeling its few grooves. "Thank you," I said, amazed at the fact that I now had my very own sword.

"Now, it's very important that you be extremely careful with this," he instructed me. "You will use it for sword fighting lessons and only during those times."

I furrowed my brow as I continued to stare at the sword. "How come you got to use it to kill stuff when you were only ten?" I asked. I hadn't meant to sound ungrateful. I was just being a typical young boy.

He narrowed his eyes. "Now, Kiran, you know why I had to use it. There were monsters all over Hyrule at that time, and there are hardly any around here now. Plus, you have Zelda and me and the guards here to protect you."

"But what if it was an emergency and no one was around to help me?"

He frowned. "All right. I suppose if that were to happen, you could use it to defend yourself, but that is it. It is to be used for defense only. Do you understand?"

I nodded excitedly, unable to conceal my delight. Mother smiled and winked at me as they left me alone in the courtyard. I had the feeling that she had been the one to convince Link to give me the sword.

After studying the sword carefully for a few more moments, I began to swing it around playfully. Before I knew it, my imagination began to run away with me, and I thrust the sword aggressively at imaginary enemies.

"Ha!" I cried, spotting a lone tree to my right in the corner of the courtyard. Pretending it was a rabid Wolfos, I ran toward it as fast as I could, slashing horizontally at the trunk.

But something was wrong. Something had happened when I hit the tree. I had not felt the sword scrape against the tree; instead, it felt more like it had sliced cleanly through something far softer than a tree.

Confused, I gasped as I looked down at my sword. The blade was covered in blood. And instead of a tree, a dead body lay before me, also drenched in the crimson fluid.

I dropped the sword as if it had burned my hand and turned away from the horrible sight, screaming as I ran from it. Unable to resist, I glanced back quickly and did a double take.

The body was gone.

Utterly stunned and baffled, I approached the area in front of the tree and bent over to pick up my sword. The blade was clean. I sighed with relief, wiping the sweat from my forehead.

Had I simply imagined it? It had seemed so real to me, though. But what could it have been other than a figment of my imagination?

I shoved my sword into my belt and left the courtyard, trying to forget about the strange vision. 'Man,' I thought, shaking my head. 'I have got to stop reading those old, violent war books in the castle library. They're starting to go to my head.'

* * *

**A/N: **Sorry, that was kind of a dinky filler chapter. I've been rather depressed lately and it's been difficult to write. Oh well. Thank you again for the reviews and keep them coming!


	9. Dark Omen

Dark Omen

As I grew older, the tension between Link and I thickened intensely, especially as I approached my thirteenth year. I was quickly becoming a raging adolescent, and this didn't go over too well with him. We began to pick fights with each other over every trivial thing that came to mind. I would often purposely provoke him by violating every possible rule I could, and whenever he would try to discipline me, I would talk back disrespectfully, sometimes causing enormous shouting matches that would result in me slamming the door in his face.

Yes, I admit now, I was quite the spoiled little smart-ass back then. But it was difficult to stop myself once I started, and my resentment for him grew so strong that I no longer cared what the consequences were. Well, at least until he took the Kokiri sword away from me and only allowed me to wield it during sword lessons, which were now given to me by one of the Hylian soldiers because Link claimed he was too busy with affairs of the kingdom nowadays.

My mother hadn't spent much time with me for a while either, but she had a much more justifiable reason. She had an entire kingdom to rule, and in my opinion, Link wasn't much of a help in that area. Anyway, I often found myself feeling terribly alone, and I always longed for some company.

I gradually got used to the fact that my mother was going to have a baby. Not just any baby, I would think bitterly. Link's baby. It had been around nine months since we discovered that my mother was with child, and her belly was swelled quite a bit by now. Everyone expected that she would go into labor any day now, and I wasn't looking forward to it.

And then came the day when my little sister was born. The procedure went as well as it could have, with Impa being the midwife, of course. There seemed no end to Impa's abilities.

They named her Leora because it was the ancient Sheikah word for "light." Leora was to be the light of their lives; the light of Hyrule. When I was allowed to see the baby girl for the first time, I grimaced. She was beautiful, with wide, bright blue eyes that sparkled like diamonds. They were even more blue than my own.

She was perfect; she was everything Link and my mother wanted for a child. And she was everything Hyrule wanted for its princess. Soon the unavoidable feeling of intense jealousy devoured me, and I began to hate my little sister before I ever knew her.

Mother hired a full-time caretaker for Leora, for she certainly could not take care of her while she had so many royal duties to attend to every day. I was temporarily satisfied with this; I could see my mother without having to encounter the little brat.

I remember one particular morning, Mother and I were in the library. Link was away for a few days, making negotiations with the Zoras. Weary of the diplomacy book I had been studying, I glanced out the window at the dark, foreboding clouds rolling in from the distance. Mother was sitting at a desk, humming to herself softly as she read and signed various documents. A knock on the door interrupted her song.

"Come in," Mother called idly. A soldier entered cautiously, appearing very nervous as he glanced around the room.

"Uh, Your highness," the soldier addressed her, bowing respectively. "I think you had better come quickly."

Mother paused in her work, looking up. "What is it? Is something wrong?" she asked concernedly.

"This way, Your highness," he said, rushing out of the room and gesturing for Mother to follow.

"Stay here," she ordered me, quickly running after the soldier. Needless to say, I was right at her heels regardless of her orders, much too curious to stay in the library.

The soldier led us out of the North tower and deep into the remaining rubble of the South tower, eventually stopping where a large group of workers stood in a clump.

"What is all this? What's going on?" Mother asked restlessly. The workers turned to face her and quickly bowed.

"We've found something, Your highness," one of the workers spoke up. He gestured toward the mounds of rubble behind him.

Mother walked slowly around the workers, searching the ground with her eyes. I followed her, and what I saw utterly stunned us both.

The sinister face of a man stared up at us from the rubble. His skin was olive green, and his long, sharply-pointed nose protruded from his face. The smug look on his face sent shivers down my spine. His blazing red hair was wildly curly, making his head look seem as if it were aflame, and he wore dark, intricately designed metal armor. I looked around the ground, realizing that it was a giant portrait of an oddly proverbial man that I knew I had never seen before, yet he looked strangely familiar to me.

I stared at his fiery red hair and grayish-green skin, observing the resemblances between him and me. And then it finally hit me.

It was Ganondorf. It was my father.

Before the shock could even register within me, I felt Mother's hand grab on to my shoulder for support. Looking up, I saw her shocked face as she stared at the enormous painting. Her fingers dug into my skin.

"It's so strange," I heard from behind me. The soldiers were talking amongst themselves. "How could something so large remain intact when the castle was destroyed?"

"What should we do, Your highness?" one of the soldiers asked.

"Burn it," she replied, still staring shakily at the dust-covered painting. She turned to the soldier. "And send for the Hero of Time."

Link arrived early that evening. I silently fumed as I watched him quietly comfort my mother. What about me?! I thought angrily. I had just seen the image of my father, staring me in the face and frightening me beyond belief, and yet no one was there to comfort me in my time of need.

"Your highness? Sir Link?" A soldier had appeared at the doorway, appearing rather shaken.

"Yes? What is it?" Link asked, still holding on to my mother.

The soldier hesitated before replying, "It's the portrait we found earlier of... you-know-who. It... it will not burn."

Link stepped forward, his brow furrowed in confusion. "What do you mean it won't burn?" he asked.

The soldier's eyes widened slightly and he shifted his weight nervously. "Uh... it seems to be indestructible, sir. We've tried everything to destroy it, but it remains intact. I'm afraid the problem is quite a mystery."

Link just stared in confusion and the room became completely silent. My heartbeat quickened as I tried to comprehend what was going on.

My mother whimpered softly behind Link, and he quickly turned to comfort her. I chose that moment to leave the two alone and headed for the courtyard, where I sat on the stone steps and cradled my head in my hands. I felt so lonely at that moment; my mind was clouded with a feeling of gloom.

Suddenly, I felt a strong urge to leave the protective walls of the castle and be out amongst ordinary people for a change. I hesitated as I thought of what had happened the last time I had gone down there alone, but then decided that I was older now, and wiser. Plus, I now had my sword to defend myself with, not to mention my newly attained skills from my sword fighting lessons.

Glancing around at the guards patrolling the area, I realized that there was no way I would be able to leave the castle without an escort. And the last thing I wanted to do was parade around town flanked by a couple of uptight, bad-tempered castle guards.

But before I could give up on the idea and fall back into depression, I suddenly recalled that as a child, Link had been forced to sneak inside the castle to see my mother. If I remembered right, he said he had discovered a tiny duct through which water from inside the castle flowed out into the moat. He had crawled through to find himself inside the castle gardens! Grinning to myself, I leapt up and ran through the castle gardens, toward the fountain at the edge of the wall. Good ol' Link, I thought to myself, temporarily forgetting my strong dislike for the man.

Happily noting that no guards could see me over here, I stepped into the water and searched the wall. Sure enough, the water escaped through a tiny passageway near the bottom. Bending down, I found that I could just barely fit through it…

…only to discover, much to my dismay, that the tunnel was completely blocked by a filter. Damn, I thought angrily. They must have put that in there when they were rebuilding this part of the castle. I had a creeping suspicion that Link was responsible for that idea.

However, after examining the filter, I realized it was made of wood. Cheapskates, I laughed to myself. I took a short trip to the kitchen and stole a knife; luckily lunchtime was over and the servants had yet to begin preparing dinner. I snuck back to the passageway in the fountain and began whittling away at the edges of the filter. It took about a half hour and quite a bit of elbow grease, but eventually I was able to break through.

When I reached the end of the tunnel, I discovered the water led to the castle moat, and I was forced to jump in. I swam around to the front of the castle and pulled myself out of the moat, being careful to avoid the guards standing along the pathway to the drawbridge. This wasn't so difficult, I thought. No wonder Link had been able to sneak into the castle so many times as a child. Well, the fact that not many guards were posted nowadays due to the constant peaceful state of Hyrule over the years also made it a bit easier for me.

As I climbed down a vine on the cliff past the castle's outer gates, I sighed with relief. I'd done it. I had outsmarted the guards and escaped from the confining walls of the castle. I walked casually down the hill toward the marketplace, trying my best to be inconspicuous.

The center square of town was bustling with all kinds of different people. I saw mostly Hylian peasants of all different shapes and sizes. Some were dressed in opulent garments, and some in plain clothing. Merchants sold their wares at numerous stands spread about the town, and crowds of people gathered in front of them. Children ran around in circles and chased cuccos, their laughter ringing throughout the area.

I simply stared for an hour or so, taking in all the sights and sounds. I walked around and looked at everything from different angles. I decided that I enjoyed being alone, walking around the marketplace like this. I would have to do it more often in the future, although next time I would be sure to dress a tad less like the Prince of Hyrule. And as long as I never got caught and I didn't stay out for too long a period of time, my mother and Link would never have to know about it.

* * *

A/N: Sorry, I haven't gotten a chance to work on this much because I've been caught up in my other fic ideas, not to mention the fact that I'm quite enthralled in Fierce Deity's story "Eternal Ark" right now. I'm working on it though. Again, thanks for the reviews and keep them coming!


	10. Desert Maiden

Desert Maiden

A few days later, I ventured out of the castle grounds again. I strolled around the front area of town, being sure to keep out of close sight of the castle guard standing over near the bridge. All of a sudden, a figure jumped out of the shadows, startling me. I instinctively reached for my sword, and then remembered that Link had taken it away from me. I whirled around to face a girl, crouched on the ground. As she stood up, I noticed her dark, tanned skin and fiery red hair. A Gerudo, I realized as I took in her sharp, pointed nose and rather scanty attire.

"It _is_ you," she declared, nodding and smiling to herself.

"What do you want?" I asked irritably, glaring at her.

"Just to look into the eyes of Dragmire's spawn," she said matter-of-factly.

I grunted and fingered the empty spot on my belt where my sword was to be. Damn you, Link, I thought to myself.

"Get away from me, Gerudo scum," I retorted, walking away.

"Ha!" she cried from behind me. "You call me scum, and yet you are the son of Ganondorf, the King of Scum!"

I turned to face her. "You are not a follower of Ganondorf?" I asked suspiciously.

"Hardly," she said sarcastically. "I despise the man. Ugh," she grunted. "You Hylians think that all Gerudo worship him. It's not true. My aunt Nabooru knew him, and she hated him so much, she-"

"Nabooru is your aunt?" I asked quickly.

She smiled, nodding her head. "Yep," she said proudly. "I see that you have heard of her."

"Yes," I replied. "My mother says that she is the Sage of Spirit."

I told her the story of when I was kidnapped by bounty hunters and delivered to the Gerudo gang when I was ten, and how Nabooru had rescued me and returned me safely to the castle. She listened with interest, never interrupting me.

"Wow," she remarked when I had finished. "Aunt Nabooru never told me about that." She smiled gently. "I'm sorry I made those rude comments. There are just so many rumors about you, most of them saying you are a lot like Ganondorf."

"Yes, I know," I said sadly. I swallowed my pride. "I'm sorry, too. I've honestly been taught that most Gerudo are not to be trusted."

"Apology accepted," she said eagerly, holding out her hand. "Truce?" How much harm could it do? I thought to myself. I shook her hand, smirking.

"Sure," I said, taking the time to get a closer look at her. She had striking golden-colored eyes, another of the Gerudo traits now familiar to me. Also, I noted, she was very pretty, in an exotic way. I tried not to blush, but I could feel my cheeks heating up.

She suddenly squinted her eyes, circling me as if she were a lab scientist studying a rare specimen. I shifted uncomfortably.

"What?" I asked irritably.

"You look like him," she said softly, continuing to stare. "Ganondorf, I mean. Except for your eyes." She leaned in closer. "They're so blue."

I backed away from her, rather irritated. "So what? What's wrong with that?" I asked angrily.

"Nothing," she stated, still with that maddening smile. My brash reaction didn't appear to faze her. "I've just never seen anything like them. They're like the sky. I bet even Nayru's eyes aren't as beautiful."

I stared at her for a moment in disbelief, then bashfully looked down at the ground. "They're from my mother," I said sheepishly. I could feel my cheeks burning, and I waited for Ganondorf to begin chastising me in my head.

"Ah, yes, the Queen," she said. "So how is she doing these days? And the Hero of Time?"

"Uh... they're fine," I replied uncertainly.

"I wish I could meet them. Aunt Nabooru has told me much about them and their adventures. She's also told me about you…" she said, smirking. I didn't know what exactly that was supposed to mean, but I decided not to question it.

"What's your name?" I asked instead.

"I'm Toril," she replied, grinning at me. "I'll be fourteen at the end of the summer," she replied. "And you?"

"Contrary to what most call me, my name isn't 'Ganon Junior' or anything like that. It's Kiran. I'm fourteen as well," I said.

She laughed heartily at my remark, and then proceeded to tell me about her life with the Gerudo. She told me that she was training to become an elite Gerudo warrior and that she hoped to become second in command to her aunt Nabooru someday.

"But I don't know if that will ever happen," she said. "That's an extremely difficult position to earn and it takes many, many years of vigorous training. I'm given no advantages as Nabooru's niece." She gazed off into the distance, thinking quietly for a moment. Turning to me, she smiled and said, "Oh! That's enough about me. What about you? You must lead an exciting life."

I laughed in response. "I wish," I said regretfully. "I would much rather have your life, or anyone else's for that matter."

She lifted an eyebrow. "Oh, that can't be true. I mean, you live in a gigantic castle and can do whatever you want, whenever you want! _And _you get to see the Queen and the Hero of Time on a daily basis."

"That's just the thing," I replied patiently. "I can't do _anything_ I want. I'm not even supposed to be out here right now. If they found out I was outside of the castle by myself, they'd probably lock me up somewhere in there for the rest of my life. It's too dangerous; I'm far too young and impressionable, they say. Ever since the whole kidnapping incident, they think I'll turn evil if I have any contact with the outside world. They think I'll become another Ganondorf," I said bitterly, the words rolling rapidly off of my tongue. The truth was, I hadn't often had these sorts of thoughts before. They were just suddenly jumping to my mind and forcing themselves out.

As I glanced at Toril, I realized her expression had become concerned and a bit frightened. I lowered my head and hastily muttered an apology.

"Well, I… I better go. My mother might get worried about me," I told her, my eyes returning to the ground. "And Link will probably beat me to a pulp," I added subconsciously.

Toril furrowed her eyebrows. "He wouldn't do that, would he? Not the Hero…"

"Well, no," I admitted. "He wouldn't lay a hand on me. But he sure likes to yell at me… I guess it's just because… well, y'know, Ganondorf being my father and all."

She gave me a sympathetic look and nodded. "Oh, all right. Well, maybe I'll catch you again sometime."

"Really?" I asked incredulously, my eyebrows raising.

"Sure," she replied, flashing that smile again. "I come here to the market just about every week with the trading caravan, and we stay here pretty much all day."

"Oh… okay. Well, I guess I'll see you later then!" I said as she turned and made her way back to her group of Gerudos.

"Yeah, goodbye Kiran!" she threw over her shoulder as she rounded the corner of the building and disappeared from sight.

My heart suddenly filled with a new hope - hope that I had finally made a true friend after all these years. Of course, when I was younger my mother had let me play with the servants' children, but I had never become close to any of them. Their fear of me, of Ganondorf, had driven them to keep their distance. But Toril had seemed to overcome the fact that I was the evil man's son rather quickly.

I smiled to myself as I dashed home and silently slipped back into the castle.


	11. First Encounter

****

First Encounter

That was the night my life changed forever. That was the night I first encountered Ganondorf. Not physically, mind you, but in a dream. As I would discover later, my father's influence within my mind was just as powerful as it would be if I had physically encountered him.

I was in a dark room. As I looked around, I realized it was a bedroom. There were a few stained glass windows made with dark colors, and through which no sunlight shined. The only light source was the flickering candles set on the tables around the room.

"My son." I whirled around to see someone sitting in an arm chair in the corner of the room. I immediately realized that he was Ganondorf Dragmire. It was not difficult to recognize him merely by the evil that radiated from him, but the resemblance between him and the indestructible oil portrait left no doubts to be considered.

"I have been waiting for this day for a long time," he said, his lips stretching into a malicious grin.

"I know how you've been taught, how you've been raised," he began, standing and slowly walking toward me. "I've been watching you since you were born. I know all about you. I know that Zelda has been trying to turn you against me, and now I have come to prevent that. You deserve to hear both sides of the story, now don't you?"

I narrowed my eyes at him. "What are you talking about?"

He ignored me. "This is where it happened," he stated, opening his arms wide and gesturing around the room.

"Where what happened?" I couldn't stop myself from asking.

His grin deepened. "Why, this is where you were created, my boy," he replied. I suddenly felt sick to my stomach as I realized what he was implying. This was where he had seduced my mother.

I glared at him angrily. "You sick bastard," I spat. "I hate you."

He just chuckled and shook his head. "Go ahead. Hate me. It won't change who you are, and who you will become. In fact, hatred can be beneficial. It intensifies your effort and determination. Feel it, and draw from its power."

"What are you talking about?" I asked irately.

"We have much in common, you and I," he said, once again ignoring my question.

"I'm nothing like you," I objected angrily.

"Oh, but you are," he confirmed, that smug smile remaining on his face. "In more ways than you can imagine."

His grin suddenly faded and was replaced with an utterly serious expression. "You will do as I say," he declared, his eyes burning into mine. "It is your destiny."

I found myself strangely unable to object to this. He was telling me that I had an actual purpose in life, that I was worth something. Plus, his blazing amber eyes and dark aura honestly frightened me to quite an extent. I did not desire to see what he was like when he was truly angry.

"I'm here for you Kiran, despite what your preconceived notions of me are," he said, the intensity now gone from his voice. In fact, he was beginning to sound… almost _fatherly_, in a way. "I have always been here… in your mind, even when you didn't know it. It is taking a while for me to gain enough strength and power to make my presence within you more apparent, but it is happening none the less. Soon I shall be able to communicate with you like this regularly. Won't you like that now, Kiran? Being able to speak with me, your _real _father, on a daily basis?"

I stared at him for a long moment, confusion invading my brain and making me feel helpless. I honestly did not know how to reply to him, part of me knowing that what he was proposing was exactly what I had been missing, what I had been desiring my entire life…

"No," I muttered. "You… I don't want to speak to you. I despise you…"

"Do you, Kiran?" he asked, his eyebrow raising as he interrogated me. "Do you really hate me as much as you think you do? Or do you say that merely because it's what you've been taught to believe your entire life? You heard their side of the story, but you must understand that there's also my side to consider. I'm giving you the opportunity to get to know me and form your own opinion of me, and eventually to follow in my footsteps. After all, you are my son." His gaze seemed to soften a bit as he said these words, and I felt my heart ache in my chest.

"So, what do you say, Kiran? Will you give me a chance? Will you give yourself a chance? You could be great and powerful, you could be known and respected by all… even more so than Link, and I will help you achieve all of this.

"Answer me, my boy. Do you accept?"

"I… yes," I replied, feeling my heart pounding in my chest as I made the sudden decision. "I will… give it a chance, I suppose."

Ganondorf grinned, his burning ember eyes full of pride. My heart warmed as he stared down at me. Link had never, ever looked at me in such a way.

"I have much to teach you," he stated. "And now we have the connection to do so. But now you must sleep. Go back, Kiran, and I will be with you when you awaken. You will feel me, hear me…"

His face and voice faded as I was engulfed by darkness, leaving the dream world and returning to reality.

But his presence did not fade. He stayed with me and made himself known when I awakened, just as he had told me.

__

Kiran, can you hear me? His voice resounded in my head, and I couldn't help but smile.

Yes, I thought. I can hear you, Father.

__

Good…good…

I peacefully fell back asleep as thoughts of having my real father with me helped to soothe my soul.


	12. Father's First Test

**A/N: **Well, yet another chapter. Sorry if this is going agonizingly slow and the chapters are too freakin' short. I promise that the actionpick up soon; the second half of this fic is much, much better than the first in my opinion.

* * *

**Father's First Test**

"So, how are your lessons going?" Toril asked me.

I sat with her on the ground in one of the back alleys in town. It was the fifth or sixth time we had met like this; nowadays I visited the marketplace at least once a week, and always around midday, when I knew the Gerudo traders were there.

"Uh… it's all right, I guess," I replied distantly, my mind wandering. "Actually, my lessons are held less frequently. The instructor claims he's always busy…"

You don't need that worthless whelp anyway. You have me now.

I nodded obediently to acknowledge my father's voice inside my head. I was not yet used to him constantly being there in my mind, but he had told me that with time, I would become well accustomed to it and embrace it.

"Hello, Kiran? You there?"

I shook myself out of my daze. "Yeah, sorry," I muttered.

"Are you feeling ill? You seem rather… out of it," Toril commented.

"No, I'm fine," I responded, sounding a bit harsher than I had meant it to. But she didn't seem fazed. That was one of the qualities I liked about Toril; she wasn't oversensitive and didn't take everything personally. Also, she was one of the few who treated me as a person rather than royalty; she didn't seem to care about my title in the slightest.

We were both fifteen years of age at this time, and although I felt it slightly at first, I was developing feelings for her, beyond that of mere friendship. I hadn't told her yet, though, for fear that she did not share those feelings.

Before long she had to return to her group to begin their journey back to the Gerudo Fortress. I was left with nothing to do but wander around the town. This was how I often spent my free time, for my mother was so swamped by her duties that I rarely saw her anymore, except sometimes at the dinner table. Link was always off with the soldiers somewhere, either training with them or taking care of "other important business," as he called it. My younger sister Leora was nearly three years old; she was raised as a typical princess. She had various nannies and caretakers to tend to her every need, and more than enough toys to capture her imagination throughout her entire childhood.

One afternoon, I was strolling around the alleyways, relaxing in the warm weather. Toril had just left with her group, leaving me to reflect upon our relationship by myself.

Son, I do believe it is time for your first test.

My heart stopped briefly as I was startled by my father's sudden disruption. Test? I furrowed my brow in confusion.

I want you to prove your loyalty to me. And your strength. You have many weaknesses that I must draw out from you, and I will.

I cringed at his criticism, but then I supposed that I would have to become accustomed to it if I was to become stronger, and silently agreed. I waited patiently in a corner of the central square of the market to receive his instructions.

You see that soldier over there?

I glanced shiftily toward the right, seeing a Hylian knight making his rounds.

He used to work for me. He betrayed Zelda when I threatened him and his family, and now as you can see he has betrayed me by returning to her service in cowardice. I want you to kill him.

I gasped sharply and turned away from the soldier. Kill him?!

"No," I whispered, shaking my head.

Think about it, Kiran, Ganondorf coaxed. _Not only did he betray me, he pretended to have been on Zelda's side the entire time when she came back to power! She welcomed him back with open arms, never knowing of his cowardly betrayal. Doesn't that make you angry?_

Ganondorf coaxed. 

I saw the soldier now with different eyes. Yes, it made me furious. How dare he lie to my mother like that?

He doesn't deserve to live.

No, he doesn't.

Kill him. But not now - wait for the opportune moment.

I lurked in the shadows of the alleyways for the remainder of the afternoon, watching and waiting. I never took my eyes off of the wretched soldier, and my detest for him grew, fueled by the angry words of my father.

Finally, the soldier's shift had ended, and he headed in my direction on his way home. I stayed hidden in the darkness, not making a single sound. I waited for him to pass right by me, and then I struck out, tackling him with all of my strength. He cried out in surprise as I collided with him, and I used this moment to grab his weapon hanging at his belt and fling it out of his reach. I then swung my leg behind him and struck the back of his knees, and he grabbed onto me as he fell. Before we hit the ground, his head collided with the wall of the building behind him, and he was knocked unconscious.

Perfect! Now finish him!

I drew my sword and held it over the soldier, preparing to plunge it deep into his chest. But I hesitated as many qualms began to plague my mind. Did this man have a wife waiting for him at home? Did he have children who loved him? Did he truly deserve to die?

What are you waiting for? Kill him!

Shock came over me as I realized what I was about to do: to take one's life, and perhaps destroy the lives of others as well. I couldn't go through with it. I shoved my sword back in my belt and backed away from the unconscious man.

You pathetic excuse for a son! Ganondorf screamed in my head. _By the powers of the Goddesses, you will do as I say from now on!_

Ganondorf screamed in my head. 

A sharp pain suddenly shot through my abdomen and I felt my knees buckle beneath me. I gasped in agony.

"Yes!" I cried out loud. "I… I will!" Anything to stop this pain, I thought as tears began to form in my eyes.

As quickly as it came, the pain ceased.

That's a good boy.

I closed my eyes and hugged my knees to my chest. I was so afraid now, afraid of the father I had longed for my entire life. I was only beginning to realize the power he held over me.

I couldn't even fathom how powerful he would eventually become.


	13. An Old Friend

****

An Old Friend

To my relief, my father did not ask me to murder anyone else in the following months. Instead, he coached me on little things, such as the way I carried myself and the way I spoke to people.

I now strutted more confidently throughout the halls of the castle, and my voice had become noticeably deeper and more powerful. I had grown tremendously; I now stood a few inches taller than Link.

Ganondorf asked me one morning to find a place where I would have enough space for sword training, for he was planning to teach me his own methods.

__

Forget those useless techniques that the Hero tried to teach you. You will be well-versed in the ancient Gerudo techniques.

"Brother!" a small voice suddenly cried from behind me. I rolled my eyes and slowly turned to face my little sister Leora, who had unfortunately spotted me on my way to the courtyard.

"What?" I asked, not bothering to hide my slight irritation.

Leora paused and stared up at me with wide, smiling eyes. She suddenly giggled and hopped up and down, her golden curls bouncing playfully. "Brother!" she cried again.

I sighed impatiently. "What is it, Leora? I don't have all day."

She cocked her head, but still kept her smile. "Um… will you play with me, Brother?"

"No," I replied irately. "I'm busy. Go play with one of your little friends."

Her smile vanished, and her lower lip began to quiver. I suddenly felt guilty for being so callous with the little girl. I sighed and knelt down beside her.

"Sorry," I mumbled. "Look, I can't play right now, but I promise I will some other time, all right?" I said gently.

She nodded. "Mmkay. I'll make you a present! It'll be an extra birthday present for your sixteenth birthday, Brother!" She wrapped her arms around my neck and pecked me on the cheek. I had nearly forgotten about my upcoming birthday. I couldn't help but smile as my little sister abruptly turned and skipped away.

__

Little wretch.

I frowned at my father's words. I thought he was being a bit too harsh.

__

Don't tell me you have empathy for such a foolish little girl. She's exactly like Zelda, the worthless little whelp.

Unsure of what he meant by that, I continued down the corridor and headed for my secret escape route from the castle. I spent a while searching for a place within the market, settling for a secluded back alley between two large buildings.

__

Now, first of all, you're going to learn dark magic.

I frowned. I had never performed any type of magic before. I knew my mother was rather gifted with the ability to manipulate light magic, but I had never actually seen her in action.

__

You inherited both mine and Zelda's abilities for magic. With the knowledge I can give you, you will become ten times as powerful as she could ever become.

I shuddered involuntarily. My father's expectations for me exceeded far beyond that which I had imagined when I had first agreed to accept his teachings. Reasoning that I probably had no choice in the matter anyway, I nodded and prepared to listen closely to his instructions.

__

Close your eyes and imagine yourself drawing shadows out of your body. Concentrate on the darkness, and remember all the feelings of anger and hatred that you have ever felt before…

I clenched my eyes shut and concentrated, but I found it difficult to just summon feelings of anger and hatred on the spot.

__

Come on, my father beckoned me. _Think of all those who have committed wrongs against you. Remember the stares people gave you when you were little. Remember the names they called you and how that made you feel; the names they still call you today behind your back._

Other voices began ringing in my ears:

"Filthy Gerudo!"

"Stay away from that child…"

"Hey look! It's the spawn of Ganon, the almighty pig!"

I felt heat rise to my cheeks, but instead of wanting revenge when I thought of those people, I felt embarrassment and sadness. My father interrupted my morose thoughts:

__

Think of… Link.

I opened my eyes. Link?

__

Yes… the Hero. Remember all of those times he stole your mother's attention away from you. He calls himself your step-father, but he cannot even look you in the eye. He has no trouble showing affection for his own offspring, yet when it comes to you, he cringes inside.

I lowered my head as I realized the truth in Ganondorf's words. I had never really noticed that he showed far more affection for Leora than he had for me when I had been her age; I was often too wrapped up in my studies and training to pay much attention to my own family. I clenched my fists in anger, but it wasn't enough anger for my father.

You know, they never told you that Link tried to kill you when you were born, he revealed darkly.

I gasped at the revelation, and the rage that my father had wanted me to feel finally surfaced. I felt a dark energy pulsate from within me. I held out my hands and channeled the energy toward the end of the alleyway. Dark beams shot out from my fingertips and collided into the building, causing a mini-explosion and knocking several bricks out of place.

Gasping in awe of this strange power, I stared at my hands, unable to believe that _I_ had caused the incident. A smile began to creep upon my face, but the sound of my father's voice quickly dampened my spirits.

__

That was pathetic, he criticized. _Even for your first time. What's wrong with you, boy?_

The smile vanished more quickly than it had appeared, and I winced. As I wiped the sweat from my forehead, the voice of a knight drifted to my ears from around the corner of the building I stood beside.

"Excuse us, sir. Have you seen his Highness, Prince Kiran today?"

I took this as my cue to leave the market, but instead of heading to the castle, I stealthily escaped out of the outer walls of the town and over the drawbridge to freedom.

The vast Hyrule Field spread out before me, an open and picturesque view of endless dew-frosted grass that met at the horizon with the swirling clouds of the sky. I had no questions about where I was going; I headed for Kakariko Village, my childhood home. I was not yet ready to return to the castle and face the wrath of Link, even though each passing moment probably was fueling his anger even further.

I gazed around as I entered the boundaries of the village. Not much had changed about the place, with the exception of a few more buildings and houses here and there. My mind was flooded with childhood memories; I passed the big tree near the entrance of the village that I attempted to climb when I was younger. I had fallen off, and I remembered the look of panic on my mother's face when she ran to help me.

I was amazed at how tiny the houses were, and I couldn't imagine myself living in one now as I once had, with no privacy from family members, especially from Link. The families had to be close-knit to tolerate each other in such a small space, I imagined.

I continued to walk deeper into the village, stopping before what had once been our old home. It seemed so small to me now. The colorful array of flowers that my mother had planted in the front was still there in full bloom. I tried to remember what it had been like living here, but I had only a few memories stored in my mind, and most of them evoked remorseful emotions from within me. I remembered the tragedy of Brock's death, and I wondered what had become of his estranged father.

"Hey, stranger," I heard from behind me. I turned slowly to see a boy around my age with shaggy, light-brown hair and hazel eyes. He stood with his feet apart and his arms crossed lazily in front of his chest. Freckles peppered his cheeks, and he smiled softly. I raised an eyebrow as he finally registered in my mind.

"Arvin," I said, grinning.

"At your service, Your Highness," he said, bowing exaggeratedly.

"Oh, don't give me that," I retorted, approaching him and shaking his hand. "How have you been, Arvin?"

"Can't complain," he replied, shrugging. "I must say, the Queen's doing a great job, as expected."

I nodded, not knowing quite what to say to my old friend. I hadn't seen him since we had left Kakariko Village and moved into the castle. I hadn't thought of him for so many years. My childhood memories were suddenly rushing back to me as my former best friend stood before me.

"Are you still living with your grandmother?" I asked.

His eyes suddenly darkened, but he kept his smile as he glanced down at the ground. "Nah… she passed away a while ago, when I was about twelve."

"Oh," I said, feeling ashamed for forgetting about the poor guy for all of these years. "I'm so sorry, Arvin."

"That's all right," he replied, his face regaining the cheerfulness that I vaguely remembered he had always had. "I've been well taken care of since then, thanks to your mother. I've been living in the Kakariko Foster Home that she established a few years ago. It's pretty nice there; I get to go to the schoolhouse for lessons once a week and the workers helped me find a job as a blacksmith's apprentice. But I'm thinking about joining the army in a couple of years when I'm old enough. Ah, I'm sorry to talk your ear off like this," he apologized quickly.

I laughed. "No, that's quite all right.

"So, how's life going for the Prince? Whatcha doin' back here in Kakariko? And all alone, I might add?"

"I just had to get away from the castle for a while, you know how it is," I said, and he nodded, even though I'm quite sure he had no idea what I meant.

"Well, uh…" I began awkwardly, staring at my feet. "I'm… uh, sorry about never coming to visit and everything."

He shook his head and just smiled forgivingly. "Nah, don't worry about it. I know you've been busy."

"Still," I said, "I truly am sorry. I should have tried to keep in contact with you."

"That would have been nice," he admitted.

"I'll make up for it," I told him. "I should be getting home by now, but I'll be sure to send letters, and I'll come and visit when I can."

He brightened. "Really?"

"Sure," I replied. "Well, I guess I'll be seeing you then, Arvin."

"All right. Goodbye, Kiran!"

"Bye!" I threw over my shoulder as I ran out toward Hyrule Field.

__

I wish you would quit wasting your time on petty relationships with old acquaintances, my father grumbled within my mind.My heart skipped a beat. Would he forever be penetrating my most private thoughts, even when I did not desire him to do so?

__

You'll have no secrets from me, he confirmed, reading my thoughts. _And you'll become accustomed to it eventually. It will make you stronger._

I reluctantly accepted this for now and proceeded to run back to the castle. The sun was sinking beneath the horizon, and I grudgingly remembered that I had a sword lesson scheduled at five o'clock. I had most likely missed it by now, I decided, and I prepared myself to face the wrath of Link as soon as I entered the castle walls.


	14. Father's Vengeance

**Father's Vengeance**

Upon arriving at the castle gates, I was told to report to the throne room immediately. With a heavy heart, I reluctantly did so.

Link was waiting there when I entered. He spun around to face me, his eyes wide with rage.

"Kiran! Where in Hyrule have you been! Your mother is beside yourself. We have been worried sick about you," he shouted.

I stared at him, my eyes narrowed. Worried sick my ass, I thought. The day Link worries about me is the day the Gorons become intelligent beings.

"Where have you been?" he questioned me angrily, his arms crossed in front of his chest.

I rolled my eyes.

"Does it really matter?" I asked irritably.

"Yes, it matters!" he shouted, the veins in his neck popping out and the tips of his ears burning red.

Apparently hearing the commotion we were making, Mother walked in at that moment.

"Kiran! Oh, thank the Goddesses!" she gasped, placing her hand on her chest and sighing with relief. "Where were you?" she asked.

I glanced at Link, who was still staring at me furiously.

"If you must know," I said casually, "I was just in the market, right outside the gates. I was visiting some friends." It was hardly an adequate excuse, but I had never been good at lying anyway.

Needless to say, Link saw right through me. "Don't lie to us," he warned.

"I'm not," I protested negligently.

"Why didn't you take an escort?" Mother asked. It wasn't difficult to see that she didn't believe me either. It was clear to me then that I was on my own for this battle.

"Because I wanted to be alone," I replied curtly.

"You didn't even tell anyone where you were going," Link said, narrowing his eyes into angry slits.

"So?" I retorted, glaring back at him. "I shouldn't have to. I'm not a child anymore."

"No, but you are the Prince of Hyrule," he stated. "And with that comes responsibilities. You know this already."

"Yeah, yeah," I replied, turning and beginning to walk out of the room.

"I'm not through with you!" he shouted. "Don't you dare walk away from me!"

I whipped back to face him and grinned maliciously. "What're you going to do about it, Hero?" I taunted. "Kill me? Banish me to the Evil Realm for all eternity?"

His hard glare faltered. "What...?"

"You heard me," I snapped. "You may have defeated my father, but you won't get rid of me that easily! Go to hell!" I dashed out, reveling in the shocked expressions I left them with.

"Kiran! Come back here this instant!" I heard my mother cry from behind me. I kept going, bounding up the stairs and through the hallway toward my bedchambers, where I slammed the door shut with an ear-splitting crash.

Clenching my fists in rage, I approached my mirror on the wall and glared at myself for a moment. Only I didn't see myself anymore.

I saw Ganondorf instead.

With a low growl, I tore myself away from the mirror and began throwing things. Any object I got my hands on, I launched across the room. I vaguely remember grabbing a stained-glass Triforce ornament that my mother had recently given to me and smashing it on the floor.

Frustrated, I ended my tantrum and plopped down on my bed. I relaxed and closed my eyes for a moment. Ganondorf was right, I thought. Releasing my anger _does_ make me feel better.

A gentle knock on my door brought me back to reality.

"Who is it?" I spat angrily. If it's Link, I thought, I swear I'll kill him...

The door opened, revealing my mother with a stern look on her face. Her eyes widened when she saw what I had done to my room.

"What in the...?" She held her hand to her bosom and gasped as she looked around. Her eyes eventually settled on me, lying on top of the bed.

"What have you done, Kiran?" I said nothing and watched as she approached the overturned dresser, gently touching the delicate fragments of the Triforce ornament that lay on the floor. She looked as if she were about to cry. I couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt at her sad and disheartened expression. But I pushed the feeling away briskly, remembering what my father had taught me.

"Why, Kiran? Why would you do this?" my mother asked me, imploring me with her eyes. I ruthlessly turned my head away from her, hating her for making me feel guilty.

"Because I felt like it," I muttered, knowing deep inside how cruel I was acting. But I had to obey my father's teachings. I could hear his voice even now…

What a weak-minded wench. She doesn't deserve the Triforce of Wisdom.

A pang of sadness stabbed my heart at my father's hateful words. I had grown up thinking that all parents loved and cherished each other, and I had always assumed that mine were no exception. But that all changed so drastically when I learned who my father really was. My mother and father did not even come close to sharing love; on the contrary, they were bitter enemies.

However, I did not think of such things now. My mind was focused on mine and my father's mission, and nothing else.

"Please tell me what's wrong, Kiran," my mother pleaded. I stared coldly in response. "You've been so distant lately, and I feel like it's my fault…" she trailed off, disheartened by my indifference.

"Nothing is wrong," I replied callously.

She looked genuinely hurt as she glanced away sadly. "Well," she said softly, "if you ever need anything, you know you can always come to me." With that, she solemnly walked out of the room and closed the door softly behind her.

I can barely remember the rest of the evening or the night. I don't believe I ever slept. The only memories that have ever come back to me are hazy images of dark, bubbling liquid in a cauldron and feelings of a dark aura flowing through my soul. It was as if I had dreamed it all, so that's what I dismissed it as the next morning. But that night, also, after most were sound asleep, I had another dream that I can remember more clearly. In it, I left my bed and somehow entered one of the dungeons below ground. I then made my way to the kitchen, stopping in front of a pot on the stove. I felt something smooth in my hand and I lifted it to my eye level.

I stared blankly at the glass vial in my fingertips. The black potion inside consisted of swirling dark clouds that mirrored what I felt in my heart - complete, icy darkness.

She cannot continue to live. The Triforce, Kiran.

I unfeelingly dumped the contents into the boiling pot and watched as the dark potion swirled around and eventually blended in with the brownish-colored liquid inside. The familiar smell of herbs filled my nostrils. The tea my mother drank every morning, I recalled vaguely. But the thought never registered within my mind; I never made any connections. I simply did as my father told me, and silently returned to my bedchambers. I slipped under the covers and shut my eyes tightly.

Hyrule will soon be mine…

I grinned to myself as I drifted back to sleep.


	15. Dark Poison

**A/N:** Yeeaah... next chapter is here.Sorry, it's short, but upcoming chapters will be longer.I've almost finished this fic, but I've been having trouble lately because I've been busy with school and the five different band programs I'm involved in now, not to mention the release of the wonderful Phantom of the Opera movie and my new obsession with the anime Fruits Basket:) But anyway, I'll try harder to get back into Zelda mode and finish this thing. Thanks for the awesome reviews, and keep them coming!

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**Dark Poison**

A few days passed, and I soon forgot about the eerie dream I had had. For some reason, Ganondorf had barely spoken to me throughout this time period. Gone were the constant reminders of how hateful Link was and how weak my mother was. I vaguely wondered what had become of the dark magic training that my father had promised to give me. However, I shrugged it off, merely assuming that he had his reasons behind it, and that in time, everything would return to normal.

But then came the day that my mother fell ill, and a foreboding sensation implanted itself in the back of my mind when I first learned of it.

At breakfast one morning, I sat across from Link at the table. Leora had already finished her meal and had been excused to attend her lessons. Link waited until she left to speak of my mother's condition.

"She been sick to her stomach for days now, and she refuses to eat much," he said quietly, his eyes staring off into the distance. "She fainted while dressing herself this morning. I'm thinking about contacting Impa."

I frowned. "Oh, I'm sure it's not that serious," I said quickly. "You certainly don't have to bother Impa. You're too worrisome." I had no idea what made me say that, but I had said it nonetheless.

He glanced at me before shifting his eyes away. "Maybe you're right," he reflected. "But just to be safe, I think I'd like her to come and check it out."

I did not reply, suddenly feeling uneasy. I let him handle the situation in his own way and retreated to a private corner of the library for the majority of the day.

That evening, as I passed by the throne room on the way to my bedchambers, I heard Link's frantic voice within and could not stop myself from eavesdropping. Peering inside, I saw that he and Impa were the only occupants of the room.

"What? Do you know what's wrong? What is it, Impa? Tell me!" Link demanded.

Impa's voice remained calm. "Sit down, Link."

He paused, and a pregnant silence filled the air. "I'll stand, thanks," he said. I could hear the trepidation in his voice.

"Zelda… was poisoned. Something she ate or drank…" Impa trailed off.

"P-Poisoned?" Link stuttered. "Can you… remove it somehow?"

"I already tried. There are ancient Sheikah techniques for just this sort of ailment." She sighed. "It failed."

"What do you mean it failed?" Link asked slowly.

"If it were ordinary poison, we would have been able to extract it from her body well before now," Impa told him. "I'm afraid it's something else. It seems to be feeding off of her, slowly draining her strength away until..."

I held my breath as I waited for her to continue, but she remained silent. I heard Link's voice next.

"Will she make it?" he asked apprehensively, his voice quivering. "No half-truths," he added firmly. "Tell me what's going to happen to my wife, Impa."

I heard her sigh deeply. "Link, I'm sorry," she said, her own voice sounding somewhat unstable. "We've done everything we can for her. She will not make it." A pause. "It's only a matter of time now."

I then heard a sound that haunts me still to this day. Link cried out, the pain and agony in his heart clearly represented. For the first time in my life, I witnessed the Hero of Time weeping. The scene before me was unfathomable, yet there it was. The Hero of Time is human after all, I remember thinking.

A loud bang forced me out of my reverie. Link had slammed his hand against the wall in exasperation.

"You mean to tell me that Zelda is in there, at this moment, dying, and there's absolutely nothing I can do about it?" he asked, the volume of his voice rising. He didn't wait for her reply. "How can this be!" he shouted.

"You have protected her, done everything to help her and Hyrule ever since you met her," Impa told him gently. "But you are merely one man. You cannot perform unprecedented miracles. No one has that power, except the Goddesses themselves."

I heard Link begin to pace back and forth across the room, muttering to himself.

"What could it be?" he asked. "Who could have done this to her?"

"I don't know, Link," she replied. "I just don't know."

Deciding that I could take no more, I tore myself away from the doorway and escaped into a dark and seemingly empty corridor, where I paced anxiously. Taking deep breaths, I tried desperately to calm myself, to no avail.

Dying? She was dying!

My throat closed and I began to choke on the air itself. No, no, no… this couldn't be happening! My worst, unconscious fears were coming true right before my eyes. I grabbed my head and nearly ripped my hair from my scalp. All I could think was one thing.

The dreams I had been having… they weren't dreams. I fell to my knees as I finally came to a realization.

I had poisoned my mother.


	16. Confession

**A/N:**Sorry this is a bit late. I'm trying to get this done, really I am. But I'm afraid my obsession with Zelda is fading, as much as I hate to admit it, and this makes itmuch more difficult to write. But I promise to finish this fic, at least.

Hopefully I'll get back into Zelda when the new game comes out this year:)

* * *

**Confession**

Impa predicted that my mother had only weeks left. Throughout all of those miserable days, Link almost never left my mother's side, and that was where I found him on the day that I finally convinced myself that I had to confront him and confess.

It was to be one of the most difficult endeavors I would ever have to endure. But Ganondorf's sudden silence for the past week made me uneasy, and I had no other choice; I had no one else to go to. Whether I liked it or not, Link was my only hope.

I approached my mother's bedroom door hazily, as if walking in a dream. Peaking through the small crack left open in the doorway, I observed man and wife exchanging what could possibly be their last words together.

"I'm sorry," my mother sobbed. "I'm so sorry, Link. I took your life away from you..."

"No, no," Link said firmly, shaking his head violently. "You didn't, Zelda."

"I should have given your childhood back to you," my distraught mother continued, breathing heavily with the effort to merely speak. "You deserved to have a complete life."

"No, Zelda," Link said weakly, his voice cracking unsteadily, which I had never heard him do before. "I didn't let you; it was my own decision. Don't do this to yourself now…"

After a long pause, my mother spoke again. "You're right," she said, suddenly sounding a bit stronger. "I shouldn't wallow in self pity. Forgive me, Link."

"It… it's all right," Link stammered.

After another pause, my mother sighed. "I love you so much," she said quietly.

"I love you, too," Link replied immediately, and when I risked a peek in, I saw him move in to kiss her gently. My heart ached as I watched them, and I almost couldn't take it any longer. A few long moments passed agonizingly by, and I decided that my mother had most likely fallen asleep by now. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, as if preparing for the world to crash down around me.

"Link?" I said hesitantly, stepping into the room.

He did not turn to face me. "Yes?" he asked, his placid tone revealing no emotion.

I wrung my fingers apprehensively and shifted my weight. "I... I have to talk to you," I said. "Please."

He turned his head, staring disparagingly at me for a long moment. "Alright," he finally responded. He stood, gently kissing Mother's hand before he followed me into another room, making it all the more difficult for me to have enough courage to tell him that I had done this to her.

He followed me to the library, where we could talk in private. Quietly I shut the door behind him and turned around. He stood there, waiting for me in the middle of the room.

"Uh..." I stuttered nervously. "I-I think you'd better sit down."

He raised an eyebrow, and then reluctantly sat on the chair closest to him. I anxiously sat in the seat directly across from him.

"I'm scared," I began, my voice trembling with fear.

Link sighed. "Yes, Kiran, I know. We're all scared for your mother. Impa and the healers are doing everything they can for her."

I shook my head. "No, no. You don't understand. I-"

"Kiran, you're not the only one who loves her," he interrupted. "Trust me, I understand and-"

"It was me!" I cried out suddenly, feeling the tears now streaming down my face.

He stared at me blankly and blinked. "Wha . . . what do you . . ."

I slid down to my knees and sobbed, "I didn't even know it was happening! I thought it was just a dream! I-I couldn't stop myself, and Ganondorf-"

"Wait… Ganondorf! Slow down, Kiran, you're hysterical," he commanded firmly, his face showing concern. I could tell he was making a fervent effort to stay calm, but with little success. "W-What are you talking about? What did you do?"

I paused, looking into his angry eyes. "_I_ poisoned her." I shut my eyes and prepared for him to strike me down in rage there on the spot. But it never came.

I snuck a peek after a few moments to see his reaction. His eyes were wide with shock and horror, and he gripped the sides of his chair so tightly, his knuckles were white. His mouth moved up and down, but no sounds came out at first.

"You..." he whispered, tears welling in his eyes. "How… how could you...?"

"I didn't mean to, I swear!" I cried, reaching to grab Link's arm desperately. "I can barely remember when I did it. All I know is that I somehow got into the kitchen one night and... I just did it. But it was like I was watching someone else do it. I-I couldn't control myself. And when I woke up, I thought it had been just a dream, a terrible dream!"

His glazed eyes seemed to look right through me as I babbled on.

"And the voice," I continued, hoping and praying for him to understand me. "I hear it constantly now. Urging me to do horrible things. Things I would never even think of doing. Link, I think it's my father. I think it's Ganondorf."

His eyes widened and he seemed to regain his focus. "Ganondorf?" He placed his hands on my shoulders. "Ganondorf has been speaking to you?"

I nodded slowly.

"Holy Din," he muttered, cradling his head in his hands. I held my breath as I waited anxiously for his course of action. "I'll be right back," he said, standing up abruptly. "I've got to find Impa." He rushed out of the room, leaving me in silence.

He's going to kill you. My father's voice echoed through my mind. _He knows you're too dangerous to have around._

My father's voice echoed through my mind. 

I slammed my hands over my ears. 'No!' I cried in my mind. 'He wouldn't do that!'

He wanted to kill you when you were born. What makes you think he'll hesitate now?

I pulled my knees up to my chest, refusing to let his words get to me.

After all, you killed his precious Zelda.

I began to rock back and forth, humming my mother's lullaby to calm myself. But he continued to taunt me with his cruel words. And the worst part was that I knew they were true.

Yes, you killed her.

I sang the beautiful melody louder and louder, but nothing would drown him out.

Your own mother.

Oh, Goddesses.

Murderer.

I heard screaming, a horrifying sound that chilled me to the bone. It wasn't until my throat started burning that I realized that the screaming came from me. I faintly saw the blurry form of Link approaching me before I was consumed by darkness.


	17. Mother's Last Words

Mother's Last Words

Distantly I heard Link's and Impa's voices above me, and I could feel something cold and wet on my forehead. Blearily, I opened my eyes and moaned.

"I… what happened?" I grunted, trying to sit up. I found myself in my bed, wrapped in blankets.

Impa gently pushed me down. "You passed out," she told me. "Don't sit up too quickly." Her voice held no emotion, which was quite normal for her, but I couldn't help but sense that Link had already told her about my confession. She had a more darkened expression now than I had ever seen her with before.

"Take this," she said, handing me a small vial with a dark-colored liquid inside. I began to drink it, but I was suddenly seized with horror. Suspicions permeated my brain and I panicked.

"W-What is this? I don't want it!" I cried.

"Calm down," Impa said firmly. "It's just a medicine to calm your blood." Her expression softened a bit. "I know what you're thinking, and we have no desire to hurt you. We want to help you, Kiran."

Glancing at Link, who couldn't seem to set his eyes on me for even a moment, I gradually relaxed and my breathing returned to normal. Impa turned toward Link. "I will be right back," she told him. "I wish to check on Zelda." With that, she gathered her things and walked out of the room, leaving us in complete silence. I waited a few moments before I spoke to Link.

"Are you going to tell Mother?" I asked, subconsciously trying to hide the dread and fear that I held in my heart.

He looked away, running his hands through his hair as he pondered. He shook his head. "No," he said, glancing back at me. "I won't tell her. I'm afraid of what it will do to her. She doesn't need anymore pain or stress now. What she needs is peace and comfort."

I nodded worriedly and waited a moment longer to ask the question that was truly plaguing my mind. "Wha… what's going to happen to me?" I asked hoarsely.

I glimpsed his grimace as he tore his gaze away from me and stared at the door. "I… don't know yet," he replied quietly. "I don't know what's going on… I…" he trailed off. I propped myself up and tried desperately to glimpse his expression, but all I viewed was his backside.

"I just can't understand…" he continued, whispering now, "why… how you could do such a thing to… to your own mother, for Din's sake…"

I felt my heart clench inside my chest and I lost my breath for a moment. "I'm sorry," I managed to whisper. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry…"

He chose not to acknowledge me. "I'm… going to go see her," he said instead, and quickly left the room, shutting the door brusquely behind him and slamming my hopes back down into the depths of my heart. I was once again left alone to wallow in fear and misery.

I dozed on and off for the rest of the night, waking the next morning to rain pounding against my windows. I slowly rose and bathed myself, dreading leaving my bedroom and facing the garish light of day. I sat at the table alone and ate my breakfast mechanically. After pecking at the food for awhile I gave and headed straight for the sitting room just outside of my mother's bedchambers. And I waited.

A couple of hours passed by, and just as I was about to doze off, Link entered the room so quietly that I hadn't noticed him at first. I glanced up anxiously at him, and he once again refused to meet my eyes. "She asked to see you," he stated, looking away from me to hide his pained expression. For the first time, I felt like Link's apparent hatred for me was justifiable at that moment. I felt the stabbing pain of guilt and sorrow as I thought of how I had single handedly taken his life away from him.

I stood up slowly and walked languorously past him to my mother's room, as if in a dream. Standing in the doorway for a short moment, I took a deep breath, and then entered.

"Hello, Mother," I greeted with as much cheerfulness as I could muster.

She slowly opened her eyes, seemingly straining with the effort to do something so simple. Her pale face began to shift until I could see that she was smiling. Or at least attempting to.

"Kiran," she whispered weakly. "My son."

"Yes," I said, moving to her side and holding her hand. She breathed in deeply, shutting her eyes tightly as the waves of pain coursed through her body. Tears sprang to my eyes as I witnessed what my father and I had done to her.

"I must tell you… some things... very important."

"Yes, yes Mother, I'm here."

"First... you must know that I love you," she began. "I have always loved you since the day you were born, and I always will. Nothing will change that. _Nothing,_" she emphasized.

I nodded slowly, more for her benefit than anything else. It was almost as if she knew what I had done and _was_ actually reassuring me, but I decided that it was just my imagination. I secretly doubted that she would still love me if she truthfully knew.

"I want you to listen to Link," she continued. "I know you don't think so now, but he is a very important part of your life. He will help you tremendously. And he'll be all you have when I'm gone."

I shook my head as more tears came to my eyes. "No, Mother. Please don't."

"There is no point in denying the inevitable," she said, sounding surprisingly firm for her condition. "I am going to die. But I have no regrets. I especially don't regret you, Kiran." Her smile returned, and she reached for my hand.

"You're not like your father. You're stronger than he was, emotionally stronger, and that will enable you to persevere," she preached. "You have love and compassion in your heart. There is a light in your eyes that is unmistakable."

I cringed inwardly as guilt consumed me. I hastily wiped a tear off my cheek, hoping she wouldn't notice me grimace as I choked back more tears.

"And take care of your sister," she added softly. "Love her… if not for your own sake, than do it… for me."

I nodded. Her eyelids were drooping, and I felt her begin to slip into a deep sleep.

"I love you, Mother," I whispered, not caring anymore about the tears rolling down my cheeks and falling. I stared at her sleeping form for a few more moments, and then left the room.

Stop that ridiculous crying. My father's voice echoed in my mind. _You are not a child anymore._

My father's voice echoed in my mind. 

I willed him to go away and leave me alone, even though I knew in my heart that I had lost all control over him a long time ago.

I won't have a weak-minded fool for a son.

Awash with feelings of shame and regret, I retreated to my room for the rest of the evening.

I had a frightening dream that night. I saw my mother, smiling happily and appearing as she had before the dark poison had invaded her body. She was beckoning for me to come to her. As I drew nearer, she began to visibly wither and fade away before my very eyes. Her smile disappeared, replaced with a scowl and two accusing eyes, glaring at me before she completely vanished.

I woke with a start, sitting up in bed. The dream had seemed so vivid, so real, that I had to pinch myself to be certain that I was awake. I couldn't get the image of my mother's condemning stare out of my mind. Unable to go back to sleep, I got out of bed and walked down the stairs toward the kitchen. I heard the shuffling of feet and frantic whispering from all different directions as I descended.

Entering the kitchen, I saw Impa sitting at a table, her back hunched over and her shoulders slumped, appearing heavy with a great burden. She cradled her head in her hands. Her normally straight and perfect silvery hair was noticeably disheveled.

"Impa?" I whispered.

She lifted her head, and what I saw filled my heart with dread. Her red eyes were wet with tears, and she was gripping the edge of the table tightly. I had never seen Impa cry, or show much emotion of any kind, for that matter. Nor had I been able to imagine such a sight. But there she was, sitting in front of me, with tears streaming down her face. She was no longer the strong, obstinate Sheikah warrior that I had always known, but a being with feelings and emotions.

I struggled to speak, to ask the question that my conscious screamed in my mind, but nothing came out. The silence between us that lasted for only those short moments was filled with fearfulness and trepidation. And then she told me what I already knew, deep within my heart.

"Your mother is gone."

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**A/N: **sigh This story is getting harder and harder to finish. I'm liking it less as I go along; the one thing that mainly bothers me is that Kiran is so feminine sounding sometimes, the way I have him think and deal with things... I guess that's what you get when you're a female and you try to write from the point of view of a male :(

Anyway, because of all of the great reviews I'm going totry my best tostick it out until the end. Thanks a lot to all reviewers out there!


	18. The Fate of Hyrule

**A/N: **Auuggghhh... sorry this is late. My computer got infected with viruses _again_ and I almost lost everything, including the last few weeks of work I did on this fic. But we got it fixed and they managed to save everything, yay! This chapter is short and I apologize, but that's the way it just turned out. I think the next few are rather long.

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**The Fate of Hyrule**

I would have rather died than attend my mother's funeral. But, of course, I had no choice. What would people think if the Queen's own son didn't show up at her funeral? Their suspicions about me would be confirmed. I was my father's son; an unworthy scoundrel not to be trusted.

I awoke that morning to dark, violent-looking skies. A thunderstorm raged outside, making the castle shudder with every thunderclap. I imagined the Goddesses looking down at me with accusing eyes, and I found myself wishing that they would strike me down then and there with a bolt of lightning.

The fact that my mother was dead had not completely registered in my mind quite yet. No matter how many times I screamed in my head that she was gone, I couldn't come to accept it. Ganondorf had not spoken since yesterday, nor had he made his presence known in any other way. I kept listening for his evil laughter, waiting so that I could condemn him for what he had made me do. However, I admit with more difficulty that I was also waiting for him to assure me that I had done the right thing; that he was proud of me, and that our mission was one step closer to being complete.

Ashamed of these thoughts, I pushed them to the back of my mind as I solemnly boarded the carriage with Link, Impa, and little Leora. Without any exchanges of words, we headed for the funeral ceremony, which was to be held in the Temple of Time.

The news of their queen's death hit the people of Hyrule quite hard and unexpectedly. The truth behind her death was kept a secret among Link, the Sages, and me. To cover her sudden death up, everyone else was told that she had merely become ill from a rare fatal disease that had ravaged her body almost before she even realized she was sick.

To this day, the one image that haunts me is that of my poor little sister, Leora, when she first heard the news. Being only six years old, she didn't quite understand at first, until Link painfully explained to her that Mother was gone and was never coming back.

"No! Mommy!" she had screamed, pounding her tiny fists on the ground as tears stained her face. Link gathered her in his arms and held on to her tightly, and her muffled cries gradually began to quiet down. Unable to watch any longer, I pivoted and ran out of the room, heading for my bedchambers where I could temporarily hide from the world.

Thousands of mourners crowded around the Temple and poured out into the center square of town. I was suddenly taken aback as I realized the impact my mother had had on Hyrule. I had always known that she was a great and just ruler, but I had never taken the time to think about it and appreciate all she had done for the country she devoted her life to. The Hylians, the Gorons, the Zora… everyone had loved her. Well, with the exception of my father, I thought grimly.

Link, Leora, and I stood before my mother's casket. My little sister sobbed beside me as Link and I each held stoic but solemn faces. Rauru ran the entire funeral service. For much of the time, he ritualistically chanted in ancient Hylian, half of which I didn't understand, despite my lessons in learning the old language.

At the appropriate time, Link stepped forward and knelt before the casket. With him gone, Leora reached for my hand and buried her face into it. Cringing, I quickly glanced back at Link, who whispered a quick prayer and then proceeded to kiss the top of the casket. To this day, I cannot fathom how I ever managed to force myself through the next hour or so of the funeral service. Yet somehow I ended up in my bedchambers, wrapped tightly in my blankets and thankful to bu shut away from the world.

I rarely encountered Link for nearly an entire week after the funeral, and it wasn't until then that I realized that Hyrule had absolutely no ruler. I decided that I had to go see him and ask him what he was going to do. After all, he was technically the King of Hyrule now. I cringed when I thought of that; Link had no diplomatic training whatsoever.

I found him in the library, bent over a desk atop which lay papers strewn about. I cleared my throat nervously, and he slowly lifted his head. His eyes met mine and for an instant I could have sworn that they were full of nothing but hatred for me. But he quickly shifted his eyes downward, and muttered darkly, "Come in."

I timidly approached the desk, wringing my hands nervously as I spoke. "I, uh… I figured you would need help ruling Hyrule. I have an idea; you… you could conjure a council of noblemen to help you make decisions and…"

"No, no Kiran," Link interjected, staring at me through tired eyes. "I'm not the ruler of Hyrule. Zelda had her will written merely a day before she passed away, and she did not leave the kingdom to me."

I stared at him, confused. "Then… whom did she leave it to?" I asked curiously.

He paused, still staring at me, looking a bit confused him self. I fidgeted under his hard stare as I waited for his answer. And then I slowly realized why he was staring at me so.

"She left it to you," he replied. "She left it all… to you." He sighed and gestured at the document lying before him on the desk as a confirmation.

I clenched my fists, wishing that this was just a dream and I would wake up and laugh about how ridiculous it was. But it was real.

"Hyrule is yours," Link reiterated.

Yes, Ganondorf spoke up for the first time since my mother's death. _Hyrule is ours._

Ganondorf spoke up for the first time since my mother's death. 


	19. Agony and Guilt

**A/N:** Finally, a longer chapter, yay! But keep in mind, I was EXTREMELY depressed when I wrote this chapter, so I'm warning you now that it is quite a bit morbid. Anyway, thank you so much for the reviews; they're just too flattering though! Feel free to complain about anything with the story; I really want to make it better.

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Agony and Guilt

I squeezed my eyes shut and cradled my head in my hands as Ganondorf's voice echoed in my mind. He had finally returned to speaking to me on a regular basis.

'Why?' I thought painfully. 'Why did she leave it to _me_?'

My father snickered. _Who else was she going to leave it to? Link? Don't make me laugh._

I stood abruptly and began pacing in front of my bed. "I can't do this." I was now speaking aloud. "Surely she wasn't in her right mind when she decided…"

It doesn't matter, Ganondorf interrupted abruptly. _She obviously could foresee you becoming a great ruler. Which you will be, but you will go far beyond her wildest dreams…_

, Ganondorf interrupted abruptly. 

"No, no!" I cried, shaking my head furiously in denial. "I can't do this… I won't!"

A sudden spasm of pain seared through my body and I found myself sprawled on the floor, clutching my head in agony. I bit my lower lip until I drew blood, refusing to cry out for my father's satisfaction.

Yes… you will, Ganondorf muttered dangerously. I could almost see him glaring down at me, his yellow eyes piercing into my soul. I grabbed my bedpost and pulled myself up from the floor, heading for the door.

Where are you going, my boy? my father taunted me.

I had to get to Link somehow. All I could think about was finding him, and telling him what my father was doing to me.

Trembling, I reached for the door handle, only to be met with a shooting pain down my arm as I wrenched it open. I spilled out into the hallway, clutching my arm and moaning from indescribable agony. Tears sprang to my eyes as I fought to crawl down the hallway, Ganondorf's voice echoing in my mind.

You weak-minded fool. I'll teach you to obey me…

The pain was too much, and I could hardly bear it any longer.

"Link!" I shouted with all of my remaining strength. "Link…"

The Hero won't help you…

I waited for unconsciousness to claim me, but it never came. I realized that Ganondorf was purposely keeping me awake to suffer his punishment. I could do nothing but lie there as waves of pain surged through my entire body.

I could not tell how much time had passed, but after a while I could vaguely hear voices coming from above me. I felt myself being lifted and carried away, and thankfully the pain began to subside. I was set gently onto a settee in the nearest room, and I opened my eyes slowly to see two male servants leaving the room while a female servant stood over me and placed a wet cloth on my forhead.

"Your Highness, are you feeling all right now?" the lady asked me, her voice almost monotone.

"Yes, thank you," I replied softly. I knew she didn't truly care how I was feeling at the moment, and she appeared as though she desperately wanted to leave the room. "You may leave, but will you please send Sir Link here?"

"Yes, Your Highness," she answered automatically, and she exited the room, not bothering to bow or curtsy to me. I honestly couldn't blame her, though. I laid my head back down and tried to relax as I waited for Link.

He arrived rather quickly, cautiously stepping into the room, looking concerned. "Is there a problem? I was told you were found on the floor; they said you were convulsing…"

"It's my father," I cut him off. "I… I didn't want anyone to know, but I couldn't bear it anymore…"

"Bear what? What do you mean?" Link questioned.

I sighed. "I told you that… that Ganondorf speaks to me, and he orders me to do things for him sometimes. Well, sometimes… w-when I refuse to obey, he punishes me by… by somehow making me feel excruciating pain. More pain than I've ever felt before. He doesn't stop until I give in and obey or until he thinks I've had enough."

Link remained silent as he pondered the situation. "Does it hurt anymore?" he asked softly after a while.

"No," I replied. "I feel an ache, but it's nothing like it was before."

"How many times has he… hurt you like this?" he asked.

I looked up at the ceiling and thought for a moment. "He did it more often a couple years ago; he seemed to back off a bit recently. This was the first time in a while he's gotten this angry at me."

Link ran his hand through his hair as he struggled to say what was on his mind. "Kiran… did he order you to kill Zelda? Did he threaten to hurt you if you didn't?"

I shook my head furiously. "No!" I shouted, glaring at him. "If he had merely ordered me to, I would never in a million years have done it! I would have withstood all of the pain and torture he could possibly inflict, and then some!" Fuming, I stared down at my feet. "I would have died before even thinking about hurting her," I muttered.

I could sense Link shuffling uncomfortably in the silence that followed.

"I'm sorry," he said softly.

"You don't believe me, do you?" I asked him warily.

He hesitated for a long time before he replied. "I don't know what to believe," he answered honestly. "Do you know what exactly caused him to do that to you?" he asked me, changing the subject.

I tried to relax and nodded. "I was… startled at the news of Mother leaving the kingdom to me, and I was thinking I should refuse to accept the position, and that made him angry."

"So… he obviously wants you to become King because the power possessed by you would be so close to his for the taking, seeing as he has such a powerful influence on your mind."

I nodded. "Yes… all the more reason for me not to accept the position. I think we should appoint a group of representatives to meet every day and discuss affairs of the kingdom. Mother had a group that she met with once every season. We could ask that group to help vote on making laws and finding solutions to problems. They would play a larger role in ruling the kingdom and would have more power, but as long as you and I are there to regulate it, I think it could work… for the time being, at least."

Link thought for a moment. "Yes…" he muttered. "That sounds like a good idea to me. You know far more about these things than I do."

The first meeting was held merely a few days later. Afterward, my ears rang from the loud bickering that had occurred among the council men and woman. We had spent hours listening to them argue over a wide range of subjects, from the impact my mother's death had on the kingdom to how we were going to keep alliances with all of the other races of Hyrule.

Link and I crashed in the sitting room as soon as the meeting was over.

"I have a new appreciation for Zelda's line of work," Link quipped exhaustedly. I closed my eyes and began to drift off, but he spoke up again.

"I shouldn't have asked her to marry me," he said bitterly.

My eyes snapped open and I turned to face him, glaring. "How can you say that?" I asked.

He sighed. "I made the mistake of putting myself before Hyrule," he confessed. "It would have been best for the kingdom if she had married some nobleman who knew about this… stuff. This whole mess would have never occurred."

"If you're blaming yourself, you're blaming her, too," I replied angrily, standing up. "She accepted your proposal, did she not? She knew the consequences. It was just as much her fault as it was yours."

Link stared in silence, looking a bit surprised. "I… but she… she's"

"Dead?" I interjected abruptly. "Yes, she's dead. Avoiding saying it won't change the fact that it's true. And blaming yourself won't change the fact that it was my fault - _my _fault!" I screamed at him, my fists clenched tightly.

The silence between us was deafening. All that could be heard was my labored breathing and my heart thumping in my ears. I chose that moment to stomp out of the room, heading once again for my lonely and desolate bedchambers.

As I lay on top of my bed, I stared into space, trying desperately to get the image of my mother's accusing face out of my mind. But no matter how intensely I attempted to concentrate on something else, her face was imprinted in my brain and her voice echoed in my ears.

Stop this foolish moping, Ganondorf demanded. _The woman is dead and out of the way; get used to it._

Ganondorf demanded. 

"Damn you…" I muttered under my breath. How could he remain so imperturbable about everything? How could he force his own son to commit such a horrendous act as the one I had committed against my mother?

But I suddenly realized that I still didn't hate Ganondorf.

I hated myself.

I hated myself for killing my mother and for not being able to stand up to my father. I hated that I was a burden to Link, and to the rest of Hyrule. I hated the fact that I had been born unwanted - except by my father, who merely wanted to use me as a tool for his revenge.

I wanted so desperately to cry, but the tears refused to spill. I couldn't feel sorry for myself, because all of it was my own doing. I stared blankly into my own eyes, becoming lost in the infinite depths of the ocean-blue orbs.

I finally realized then that I could not live like this any longer. Feeling as if I had become detached from reality, I slowly turned my head toward the corner of my room where my Kokiri sword and shield lay dormant. The sword was in my hands before I even realized it.

My windpipe felt as if it were being squeezed and I wheezed painfully. I ignored it, wiping the sweat from my forehead and clutching my sword in my right hand. My entire arm shaking convulsively, I slid the sword's blade across my wrist and stared in awe as crimson poured from the cut. Ganondorf began screaming at me in my head.

What are you doing! You fool!

His voice barely registered within me as I hastily sliced at my other wrist, chuckling as my father panicked. I laughed harder, knowing how I was ruining all of his precious plans.

Stop this! I command you, Kiran!

Once again, he made pain shoot through my skull, but I ignored it and kept laughing madly at his pathetic attempts. I dropped the sword and laughed hysterically as it made a loud clanking sound when it hit the floor. For some reason, I found the whole situation to be quite hilarious.

You've gone mad…

I stopped laughing at my father's words. My vision was becoming blurry, and I could barely feel myself falling to my knees. Ganondorf's voice gradually faded away.

Perhaps I was wrong about you; perhaps I shall have to take matters into my own hands…

I awoke to sharp pains shooting through my arms. Groaning, I opened my eyes to find myself lying in my own bed. I looked down at my arms in disbelief; my wrists were wrapped tightly in white bandages, part of them soaked with blood. I cried out in despair, wondering why I was still alive.

Link rushed into the room immediately as if he had been waiting just outside the door, startling me. I tried to sit up, but every move I made caused me to sweat profusely and a wave of nausea to hit me.

Link closed his eyes and sighed in relief. "Oh, thank the Goddesses," he muttered, coming up beside me to lift me from under my arms and prop me up on my pillows. I quickly shifted away from him, unable to face him after what I had done.

"Kiran," he began slowly, taking a deep breath. "I… this has proved to be more serious than I could have ever imagined, and I cannot help feeling responsible…"

"What do you care?" I grumbled, still refusing to meet his gaze. I lowered my head. "You've despised me from the moment I was born, and I've proved everything you suspected about me to be true. You had every reason to want me dead, as I wanted myself dead. Everyone wants me dead." I finally lifted my head and squinted at him accusingly. "So why am I still alive? You could have left me there to die. Why didn't you, Link? It would have been for the best for everyone!"

His gaze turned stern as he turned away from my intense glare. "Leora was the one who found you," he said solemnly. My heart skipped a beat, and I was once again overcome with guilt. "She saw you there… on the ground, bleeding," he continued, turning back around to face me. "How could you think… for even a second… that a young, innocent child like her would ever want to see her own brother dead?" His voice was laced with anger, and I hung my head shamefully.

"I'm sorry," I murmured. "I… I didn't think…"

"Exactly," Link interjected quickly. "You didn't think."

The momentary silence between us was deafening, and I struggled not to squirm from discomfort. Link sat on the other side of my bed and sighed, cradling his head in his hands. I stared at him, vaguely realizing that this was the first time he had ever sat on my bed and talked to me like this.

"I'm sorry," he muttered, his eyes squeezed shut as if he were in pain. I tilted my head in confusion. What was he apologizing for?

"I'm sorry for not being there for you, Kiran, when I should have," he said. "I had a responsibility… to Hyrule, to Zelda, and to you." He lifted his head and met my eyes. "A responsibility I couldn't face up to. I couldn't get over myself; I couldn't get over the fact that you were a creation of Ganon's. I never truly comprehended that you were more than that, that you were a human being with thoughts and feelings, just like anyone else." He paused, his back hunched over in defeat. "For the first time in my life, I've failed," he said softly, "and I don't know what to do to fix it."

I just stared for the longest time, thinking deeply. I had never noticed how young-looking Link appeared; it almost seemed as if he hadn't aged a bit ever since I was a child. I vaguely wondered if it had anything to do with him possessing a third of the Triforce, for my mother had never seemed to age much either; that is, until she became ill.

"Kiran," Link spoke up suddenly. His gaze was pensive and he rested his chin on his hand. "What would you think… if I took you on as a… well, as an apprentice of sorts?"

My heart thumped in anticipation. "W-What do you mean?"

"Well," he began, "I figure that Ganondorf's technique of teaching you his ways wasn't a bad idea. I mean, he obviously influenced you that way, and I think that perhaps we can begin to reverse the process with my influence replacing his." He paused. "It's a little out there, I know, but until we figure out exactly how he holds this power over you, it's the best I can come up with."

I thought for a moment. I didn't know exactly what to make of the suggestion, but the fact that Link was offering to help me through this ordeal was rather comforting.

"Well then," he glanced at me cautiously. "What do you say?"

I paused, and then nodded. "All right. I'll try it."

And so it was. Hyrule was to be temporarily placed into the hands of my mother's trusted council of advisors so that I could concentrate fully on training with Link as his apprentice. Once Link decided that I was free of Ganondorf's hold on me (if that was ever to happen), I was to take on my responsibilities as the King of Hyrule.

Assuming, of course, that we would ever succeed in our mission to break me away from Ganondorf. We had no choice but to believe that we would, for what would happen if we did not succeed was too terrifying to even think about.


	20. Moonlight Swim

**A/N: **Auuhh... terribly sorry for the delay. The truth is, I honestly gave up on this story. I really hated it and was planning to stop it there, but then I realized that hell, I already have it just about finished anyways, so I might as well go through with it.

I still think it sucks, though. But the reviews are still nice to read anyway.

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**Moonlight Swim**

I was constantly under Link's watchful eye from then on, and it was getting to me quickly.

Being under Link's constant watchful eye was getting to me. I felt like the walls of the castle were closing in on me, and I longed to return to the days that I used to sneak out and run around the marketplace. I felt like Link was understanding me more lately than ever before, so I figured that perhaps he would allow me a little time outside the castle walls.

Link and I were discussing Ganondorf one afternoon when I decided to bring it up.

"Don't let what he says get to you," Link was instructing. I had told him about the way Ganondorf would criticize and ridicule me at times. "This is obviously one of his methods to gain control of you. He's using words to twist your thoughts and contort your perception, making you forget your common sense and your morals and beliefs."

I raised my eyebrows. "Did you come up with that by yourself?"

He glared sternly at me for a moment, but then he broke out into a sly grin. "All right, so maybe I had a little help from the great, all-knowing Impa…"

I laughed. "That's what I thought."

"Anyway," Link continued, "she's right, you know. Ganondorf is basically making you forget your true self. He knows you too well, knows how to persuade you to change your opinion of yourself and of everything around you."

I nodded, letting the words sink in. After a moment, I decided that it was a good enough time for me to ask him.

"Link, I haven't been outside the walls of the castle since Mother's funeral," I pleaded, regretting the words when Link winced.

"I know," he sighed. "It's just… very dangerous out there, especially for you."

I scowled. "It's not as if Ganondorf is running free around Hyrule, waiting to get his hands on me. He as just has much power over me here as he would anywhere else."

Link sighed. "Yes, I know, but at least here I have some control over your actions."

"You see me as a threat to people?" I asked him.

"You know I don't mean you," he said. "I meant him. Who knows what he's got planned for you now?"

I sighed, knowing that he was right. "Well, what if you went with me?" I suggested. "The moment I start acting up, you can kick my ass and that'll be that."

Link chuckled. "Yes, well… I suppose you can walk around the market if you'd like," he agreed reluctantly. "I don't think my accompanying you will really be necessary, as long as you stay within the gates of town. The guards down there will help you if you need it. You can go…as long as you're back before sundown, that is."

My eyes widened. He was trusting me to go off by myself? I almost felt like hugging the man…

Almost.

Needless to say, I busted out of the place as soon as I could get away after training that afternoon. The castle guards allowed me to walk out the front gates, on the orders of Link. I tried my best to dress inconspicuously, wearing a cloak to cover my head for safety reasons.

I trudged down the hill toward the marketplace, filled with a feeling of freedom that I hadn't experienced in years. Entering the central square, I sighed peacefully. I hadn't realized how much I missed wandering around this place and the simple act of watching people go about their everyday lives. I leaned back against a building near an alleyway and tried to enjoy being away from the boring castle for once.

Out of the corner of my eye, a figure slinked out of the shadows. I whirled around and gasped at the familiar face that I had not seen for years.

"Toril," I murmured, staring open-mouthed at the young Gerudo before me.

"Haven't seen you for a long time," she stated, leaning casually against the wall. "For three years, I believe. I've turned eighteen already."

"Yeah, I know," I said softly, looking down. "I'm sorry. I've just been... busy."

"Yeah. I understand," she said compassionately, smiling softly. "I'm sorry about your mother."

I nodded, tearing my eyes away from her as I felt tears burning beneath my eyelids. "Thank you," I said, unable to hide the shakiness in my voice. I looked down at the ground and shut my eyes, terrified of what she would think if she knew what I had done.

All of a sudden I felt her arms wrap around me. I opened up to her warm embrace. All of the emotions I had kept inside me for months was released. I began to sob in her arms. I hated myself for crying in front of her, and I could almost hear my father shouting at me for showing weakness. But the tears kept coming, and I was powerless to stop them.

"It'll be all right," she said soothingly. "I'm here for you."

Instead of feeling comfort at her words, I suddenly felt extreme anxiety. If she knew about me, about what I had done, would she be so willing to console me? Sure, she already knew and accepted the fact that Ganondorf had fathered me, but what would she think if she knew that I was more like him than she first thought?

"Come with me," she whispered in my ear. "Come with me to Lake Hylia."

"Yes," I said without thinking. All I knew was that I would do anything to be with her longer.

Before I knew it, we were galloping through Hyrule Field on her horse, me in the back with my arms around her. Her hair blew wildly in my face, but I did not mind at all. In fact, I made sure to savor the moment. The sun was setting, casting a fiery glow onto Toril's hair.

It was twilight by the time we reached Lake Hylia. Without a word, she hopped off of the horse and sprinted toward the water. She collided into the waves with a splash, and then twisted and floated on her back.

"Come on in, Kiran," she called, splashing playfully. "The water's fine."

"I don't know," I said hesitantly. I wondered if Link had discovered that I had left the castle yet. I was beginning to worry.

She started to pout, loosening those luscious pink lips of hers. "I was hoping you'd come and take a nice, relaxing swim with me. C'mon, you know you want to," she said seductively.

I smiled and shook my head. She was right; I wanted to more than anything. I stripped down to my pants and began to slowly wade into the dark, murky water.

"I grow impatient," she grumbled as I timidly tested the water with my feet. After a few moments, she started fidgeting. "Ugh, you're no fun!" she cried suddenly, leaping from the water. She grabbed my arm and roughly pulled me in. I cried out in shock as I plunged into the icy water, and I heard her giggling.

I scowled at her. "You're going to regret that," I growled.

She just laughed. "What are _you _going to do about it?" she taunted, circling me.

"This!" I cried, and ducked her head under the water. I quickly began to swim away in fear of her reaction. Sure enough, I heard her cry out in frustration and start after me. But I was no match for her warrior-trained body. She caught up with me in no time at all and wrapped her arms around my neck playfully. I felt my skin tingle, knowing that it wasn't because of the cold. She was awakening strange and new feelings inside of me that I had never thought possible before.

I turned to face her, slowly reaching out to touch her. My hand paused in midair as if I was afraid that touching her would shatter this moment and I would find myself in my bed, realizing that it had all been a dream. She gently took my hand and held it in her own, giving me her most sincere, beautiful smile. I could no longer hold myself back. I leaned forward ever so slowly until I felt her lips against mine. I gently kissed her, reveling in the moment, but keeping it short and polite. The last thing I wanted to do was seem like I was trying to take advantage of her. However, when I began to pull back, her hands moved to my neck and she returned the kiss, making it longer and more passionate. As I tried desperately to relish the wonderful moment, Ganondorf's voice suddenly came to me.

Well, well, well, he taunted. _Looks like my boy's growing up._

he taunted. 

I tried to ignore him, remembering Link's advice. But he kept speaking, urging me to delve into my deepest desires and divulge them, regardless of what Toril felt or thought.

That's all women are good for. Use her until you tire of her, and then discard her. Satisfy yourself, and then let her go. She cannot become a distraction.

I clenched my fists as his words tore at my soul. I broke away from Toril's embrace, making my way toward the shore.

"Kiran?" I heard her say. She began to follow me. "Kiran, what's wrong?"

I ignored her, fighting my way through the impeding water and up to the shore where I pounded my fist on the ground in frustration. I scurried to put my clothes back on, hearing her come up behind me.

"Did I do something wrong?" I heard her ask. I whirled around to face her, and I suddenly found myself speechless. Her body glistened in the moonlight, and the droplets of water in her hair made it sparkle like stars. She was a vision of beauty. No matter how I tried, I couldn't tear my eyes away from her.

"I can't do this," I said softly, looking down at the ground shamefully. "I won't hurt you like this."

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Nothing," I muttered, turning away and exasperatingly yanking my clothes back on.

"Kiran, you can tell me," she said forcefully, stepping in front of me. I ignored her. "Look, I'm not going to judge you. Maybe I can even help you."

I glared at her angrily and crossed my arms over my chest. "You can't help me. But do you really want to know? Because I'm warning you now: you won't want to have anything to do with me."

She raised her eyebrows and cocked her head to one side. "You want to bet?"

"Yes," I replied stubbornly.

She sighed. "Look, I don't care what you are or who your father is. Stuff like that doesn't matter between friends."

I lifted my eyebrows, allowing myself to smile a little. "Friends?"

She laughed. "All right, maybe we're more than just friends," she said, grinning slyly.

I glanced down guiltily at my feet. "I don't know… I don't think I'm ready to tell you yet," I said regretfully.

"All right," she replied, shrugging. I looked up, surprised. "That's fine with me. You can wait until you're comfortable enough with me."

"Does this mean… you want to meet with me again?" I asked hopefully.

She rolled her eyes and smacked me hard on the shoulder, making me wince. "Of course, Kiran. Sheesh, you act like you're some disgusting, hideous creature or something," she said, laughing.

As I slipped into my boots, I couldn't help but think that that was exactly what I was.

"I'd better head back," I muttered absently, turning away from her to gaze off into the distance. "Link's going to kill me."

"Oh… okay," Toril replied, and without another word between us, we rode back to the castle gate. I hopped off of her horse and stood there for a moment, staring at the ground as I searched for the right words.

"Well… thanks, Toril," I said, glancing up at her and forcing a smile.

She stared back at me for a long moment, her amber eyes shimmering as her lips stretched into an enticing grin.

"What?" I questioned, becoming uncomfortable with her expression.

"Nothing," she murmured, shaking her head. "It's just… you look… handsome when you're nervous." She giggled, quickly hiding her face with her hands in embarrassment.

I could feel my cheeks burning red. "Uh… thanks," I replied, laughing quietly. I paused suddenly and wrinkled my forehead. "Uh… can I see you again sometime?" I asked anxiously.

"Of course," she answered, recomposing herself quickly. "You didn't think I'd let you go that easily, did you?"

I smiled. "How about… the day after tomorrow, at noon?"

"It's a date," she replied, smiling.


	21. Hope

**A/N: **This is... a really short and stupid chapter, to put it bluntly. The next one is longer andsomewhat better, in my opinion. Thank you so much for the support in your reviews, despite the low quality of this story. The end is near... only about three or four chapters left.

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**Hope**

"Link, what would you say if I told you that I was… pursuing a romantic relationship?"

We had just finished eating breakfast when I proposed the awkward question. Link raised his eyes in interest and cleared his throat nervously.

"I, uh… who…?" he stammered.

"Well," I began nervously. "You see, I met this girl a long time ago, and just recently I ran into her again… and, uh…." I trailed off uncertainly.

"Oh," Link put in awkwardly. "Well… what is her name?"

"Her name is Toril," I replied, and then I hesitated. "She… she's a Gerudo, Link."

His eyebrows raised a bit. "A… a Gerudo?" he questioned, sounding uncertain, yet not too angered or fearful.

"Yes," I confirmed. "In fact, she's Lady Nabooru's niece."

He visibly relaxed a bit. "Oh," he said. "I wasn't aware that Nabooru had a niece. Well, I suppose that's fine with me… I mean, you're well past the age when… uh…"

"Yes," I agreed quickly. It was obvious how horribly uncomfortable he was with topics such as this. I smiled to myself, wondering how he would deal with Leora when she came of age. "So, uh… I was wondering… would you like to meet her?"

Link paused, surprise present in his eyes. "Uh… yes, sure. That'd be nice." He smiled wanly, and I could tell he was appreciative of my beginning to open up to him. I had to admit that it was nice being able to tell him things and letting him know a bit about me.

Link allowed me to visit with Toril again a few days later. We met in the marketplace again, and I told her about what Link had said.

"Toril, I told Link about you and he wants to meet you sometime. Would that be all right? You could join us for dinner or something."

Her face brightened. "Really? He wasn't angry or anything?"

I shook my head. "No, just a bit surprised, I think. He seemed almost… happy that I told him about you."

"Well, that's good, right?" Toril asked. "You're finally getting along with him."

"Maybe," I said thoughtfully. "It's still pretty awkward between us, but I suppose that there is considerable less tension than there used to be."

"Hmmm…" she murmured. She sat in my lap and laid back against me lazily. I stiffened at first, but then began absentmindedly running my fingers through her beautiful red hair and breathing in her fragrant scent. "I love you, Toril," I muttered without thinking, so quietly that I wondered if I had actually said it aloud.

After a short pause, I heard her whisper, "I love you, too."

Never before had I experienced such a feeling of ecstasy. Just knowing that she felt the same way about me made my heart soar.

And for once, Ganondorf's commanding voice wasn't there to destroy the moment. All of the happiness that I felt seemed to push him away from my mind.

Maybe my training with Link is actually working, I thought to myself hopefully. It seemed that Ganondorf had been backing off considerably lately. I found myself imagining what life would be like without him. I would be able to accept the position of King, and maybe Toril could be my queen… Even though I knew that Hyrule wasn't quite ready for a half-Gerudo king _and _a full-blooded Gerudo queen, I liked to fantasize about it anyway.

Weeks passed, and I had gotten to visit with Toril on numerous occasions, including the night she joined us for dinner. Link tried as hard as he could to be friendly, and Leora immediately decided that Toril was her new best friend.

Soon after Toril left the castle after our dinner together, I turned to Link.

"Ganondorf hasn't spoken to me for an entire month, Link," I told him excitedly, unable to keep from grinning. "It's working. Soon he'll be gone!"

Link nodded, but kept a stern expression. "That is a good sign," he said, "but don't assume that it's all over. Can you still feel him there?"

My smile vanished. "Yes," I replied solemnly. "Not as strong as before, but I can still feel him." I wilted, feeling embarrassed for sounding so naïve.

"You've made much progress, though, Kiran," he added quickly. He rested his hand on my shoulder, and I could tell he felt a bit awkward about it, but he didn't pull away. "I… I didn't expect him to retreat so quickly. You have surpassed my expectations."

I smirked, knowing that that was the closest he would ever come to saying that he felt proud of me. "Thanks," I muttered in response.

He dismissed me from the lesson, and I headed for the library to relax for a little while. I curled up with a book on the seat that faced the window, but I had just begun to nod off to sleep by the time I heard a little voice.

"Hi."

I turned to see my little sister Leora standing in the doorway.

"Did you want something?" I asked, turning my back to her and pretending to look engrossed in my lesson book. We had hardly said a word to each other in months, and the gap between us felt larger than ever. After all, I was almost thirteen years older than her, not to mention the fact that I had tried to murder her in her sleep not long ago.

"Not really," she replied. She sat on the chair across from me, and we sat there in awkward silence for a few moments.

"Do you remember that night?" she piped up all of a sudden. "I mean, the night you tried to... you know."

I stared at her for a moment without emotion, in spite of the dread and anxiety I felt in my heart. I nodded. "Yes," I replied, shifting my eyes away. "I… I never told you that I was sorry. I wasn't myself that night."

"Yes, Daddy told me you were sleepwalking and you didn't know any better!" she said, giggling. I smiled weakly, amused at Link's cover up story.

"But I was still scared," she admitted, becoming serious. "You looked very scary. Mommy would have been mad at you for scaring me like that!" I winced at her mention of our mother and turned away.

"But you're still my brother," she added, "and I still want you to play with me sometimes like you used to."

I turned back around and stared at her. She was smiling shyly, her tiny hands clasped together in front of her. "S-So, does this mean you forgive me?" I asked, preparing myself for any possible answer.

To my relief, she smiled and nodded. "Yes. I forgive you, Kiran. And I know Mommy does, too!"

I smiled back, not bothering to hide the tears forming in my eyes. "That means a lot to me," I said. "Thank you."

She slipped her hand into mine, interlocking her fingers with mine. Her ivory skin contrasted significantly to my olive-colored skin, but it didn't seem as noticeable to me at that moment.

"Anytime, Brother," she said.

I sighed happily as I readied myself for bed that night, thinking positively about how my life was going now. Along with Ganondorf's recent absence, the kindness and understanding shown by Toril, Leora, and even Link filled me with hope for the future.

However, my peaceful existence was shattered the moment I began to dream.


	22. Her Memories

**A/N: **Okay, nevermind. This chapter is no good either. Oh well, it's necessary for the plot and it's already written so I might as well go through with it. Thanks again for the support and everything:) . Only about three chapters left, yay!

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**Her Memories**

Kiran . . .

A magnificent white light flashed before my eyes as I heard my name being called softly. The next thing I knew, I was in a dark, dank dungeon. The walls were made of cold, gray stone and a flickering torchlight provided a dim light that allowed me to see a diamond-shaped pink crystal floating in the air in front of me. But as I looked closer, I could see someone was encased inside.

All of a sudden, the crystal vanished to reveal a much younger version of my mother. She looked to be around seventeen years old or so. As she glanced around the dungeon, I could clearly see that she was terrified, but was trying desperately to hide it.

"Mother!" I called, but I found that she couldn't hear me. When her eyes shifted momentarily in my direction, she looked right through me.

The heavy door was suddenly thrust open and out of the darkness stepped my father. He seemed taller than I remembered him, and his crimson red hair was long, reaching down to the middle of his backside's armor.

"Greetings, Your Highness," he sneered, bowing mockingly. "I hope you enjoy your stay here at my home while you wait for your little hero to arrive."

My mother said nothing; she only stared into his sinister eyes unwaveringly. He towered over her menacingly, drowning her in his shadows. But still she stood tall and proud.

"Seven years," he said, slowly coming closer to her. "It's been seven years since I last saw you. My, my, how you have blossomed." He lifted his hand, stroking her cheek ever so softly. She snapped her head away and stepped back.

"You're pathetic," she spat. "Do you actually think that you're going to defeat the Hero of Time?"

He grinned fiendishly. "Why shouldn't I? After all, I am ten times more powerful than he is. Without the power of your precious sages, he is practically defenseless." He paused, searching her face intensely, just as he had done to me so many times in my dreams before. It looked as if he were trying to penetrate her very soul.

"However," he continued, turning to pace in front of her, "I admit that there is always the possibility of him pulling through. I could very well be defeated, and you and your precious Hyrule would live happily ever after." He glanced up at the ceiling, his grin widening. "But not for long," he said softly, almost to himself. His gaze returned to my mother. "I wouldn't count on it though, Princess," he added.

I saw a hint of a smile on my mother's face as she shook her head. I imagined that she was thinking about how incredibly arrogant and patronizing he seemed, especially since he was about to be defeated by a seventeen-year-old boy. But, of course, she didn't know that yet. Did she?

He apparently noticed her smile. His eyes narrowed and his evil grin disappeared. "I can't imagine what you're so happy about, but I won't ask. I will get what I want from you, and there's nothing you or your little hero can do to stop me."

He stared at her hungrily, madness dancing in his eyes. But my mother either chose to ignore it or simple didn't notice his stare. She lifted her chin and crossed her arms in front of her chest defiantly. "Link will defeat you," she said confidently.

"Oh, no!" he mocked her with exaggerated surprise, and then he laughed. His face became serious again. "This isn't a fairytale, Princess. This is cold, hard reality, and good does not always conquer evil here in the real world. So let go of your fantasies and finally face reality."

My mother suddenly let out a small, confident chuckle, surprising both my father and me. It served to enrage him even further.

"You try my patience," he snarled, his voice deep and suppressed. "What _is_ it that makes you so sure that your Hero will win?"

"What does it matter to you?" she asked smugly. "Are you threatened by the fact that I have enough faith in him to believe that he will win? That I _know_ he will win?"

His hands curled into fists and his nostrils flared. I looked into his eyes and saw that he was not angry, though. In fact, I could see fear emanating from his eyes. I stood there in disbelief. Here was the almighty King of Evil, standing before me, fearful of a threat by my mother, whom he had always called weak and inconsequential.

My father sighed. "You and your damn foresight," he muttered. "So you have seen that I will be defeated?"

My mother didn't respond, and I realized that she had most likely had a prophecy about it. She averted his gaze, and I imagined that she regretted revealing that to him, even if she had done it indirectly. She stared at the ground as she waited for him to react.

He sighed and suddenly looked in my direction. I could have sworn he could see me from the way his lips slowly curled into a grin and the confidence returned to his eyes. "So it shall be," he said quietly, his ember eyes still burning into mine. "My efforts will not be in vain, though," he continued, finally returning his gaze to my mother. "This I vow."

All of a sudden, he seized her arms and yanked her toward the door. My heart pounded in my chest as he dragged her out of the cell. I heard her scream, and it sent chills through me. Before I could even move the cell warped and changed shape until I realized I was in a bedroom. I glanced at the crimson curtains and the dark, stained glass windows. Ganondorf's bedroom, I realized, remembering my first dream with my father.

Suddenly, the heavy door flew open, crashing into the wall as Ganondorf came storming in, my mother slung unceremoniously over his shoulder.

I stared in shock as he threw her onto the bed. She scrambled off clumsily, falling to the floor with a thud. She backed up against the wall behind her, her eyes filled with terror. Ganondorf began to walk toward her

"It will take your hero a while to figure out how to get here, you know," he told her, grinning maliciously. "So whatever shall we do in the meantime?" He paused, scratching his chin thoughtfully. "No. I don't think I'll kill you. Something else comes to my mind…"

My mother visibly shuddered underneath his intense gaze. "What? What are you going to do?" she asked quietly.

His mad grin widened and his ember eyes burned intensely. "I'm going to break you," he threatened, his voice hauntingly deep and dark. "I'm going to make you wish I had killed you."

With that, he lunged at her and scooped her up impulsively. She screamed as he threw her back onto the bed and began to tear at her dress.

"You know, you're very beautiful," Ganondorf told her, his voice calm amid the terrible chaos he was creating. "If the circumstances were different, I think I would have taken you as a wife."

"No! Please… don't!" my mother screamed helplessly as he desecrated her. She squirmed beneath him and tore at his face, but his massive size and strength easily overpowered her. Her weak efforts were futile against him, and no one was around to hear her scream except me. But all I could do was stand there, my feet nailed to the ground in terror.

Was this my father's doing? Why was he forcing me to see this? Suddenly, the hatred I felt for him in my heart swelled, and something burst inside of me.

"Stop!" I shrieked at him. "I hate you! Leave me alone!"

He couldn't hear me. He continued to violate my mother as I helplessly watched.

"Stop! STOP!" I screamed over and over again, willing myself to wake up and tear me away from this nightmare.

The horrible dream mercifully ended then, and I now found myself staring into the eyes of my mother, except now she appeared just as she had looked before she had been poisoned. After a short moment, she spoke.

"I'm sorry you had to go through that, my son," she said softly. "But I wanted you to see for yourself what a terrible man your father was. You are about to begin a great battle against evil within yourself, and it will not be easy. But you can succeed, I just know you can. You just have to believe in yourself."

I simply stared at her, confused out of my mind. She smiled softly at me and tilted her head affectionately. "I have so much faith in you, Kiran," she said. "I always have, ever since you were born. I knew you would have the ability to do amazing things. You see, when it was discovered that I was pregnant with you, I was faced with a enormous dilemma. Link advised me to have you killed as soon as you were born. Now, you must understand, my son," she put in quickly, "Link had just spent the majority of his life trying to defeat Ganondorf, and all that time made him bitter and full of a passionate hatred for the man. He tried to convince me to go along with the plan, and I had agreed at first, but then you were born. The moment I set eyes on you, I refused to let Link harm you, promising him that I would raise you myself and make sure you were cleansed of the evil you may have inherited from your father. But I did not do an adequate job; you were growing apart, and I was too indulged in my responsibilities owed to Hyrule that the very being I feared and despised most had captured your heart and soul. My negligence was my own destruction."

I felt overwhelming guilt as she essentially blamed herself for her own death. But somehow, I knew that now wasn't the time to argue with her about it. "I… I don't understand," I stuttered. "How is Ganondorf doing this? How is he inside of me, telling me what to do?"

"Ganondorf somehow put something inside of me that was passed on to you, allowing him to communicate with you from the Sacred Realm," she said. "He's been manipulating you, forcing you to do things for him, and he also has established a heavy influence on your mind. He has shown you his side, his points of view. I felt it necessary to show you my side."

She paused for a moment and smiled softly at me. "I will help you, Kiran. I will always be with you, deep within your heart. You need only to summon me from there for strength and guidance, but most of all, for wisdom. The wisdom that will enable you to make the right decision and conquer the evil. This will help prepare you for what will come."

"Prepare me for what?" I asked, but my mother's image was beginning to fade away. "Mother!" I cried out, panicking. "What's going to happen?"

But she was gone, and I woke up in my own bed, sweat pouring down my face.


	23. The Breaking Point

**A/N: **Alrighty then, I'm back. Once again, I took a break from this, completely abandoning it for awhile. But then with all this stuff coming out about the new Zelda game I got all excited and sort of went back into "Zelda mode." Or something like that.

Anyway, I still wasn't going to finish this, but then I saw that I somehow got a hundred reviews for this, something I NEVER thought would happen.

So... thank you so much for reading and reviewing, even though this story really doesn't deserve that recognition. I'll finish this just for you all, and because I know how annoying it is when you're reading a story and then find that the author never finished it.

Oh, and if there are any errors with the italicizing and stuff, it's something to do with this site. Sorry if it gets confusing, I can't really do anything about it.

* * *

The Breaking Point

I tossed and turned so violently the rest of the night that when I woke up the next morning, my limbs and muscles ached as if I had been in a battle to the death with Ganon himself. I moaned loudly and feverishly tried to sit up.

Link was at my side within minutes. "Goddesses, you're hot," he commented, yanking his hand away from my forehead. "How are you feeling?"

I moaned miserably in response.

"All right, you stay in bed for a while," Link said. "Damnit, if only Impa had stayed another two days. Well, I'll go find you some potion medicine." He stood and left the room.

I drifted in and out of consciousness for a few hours before I gained the strength to keep my eyes open. I vaguely wondered what had happened to Link, and then decided to get up from bed to see what was going on.

Only… my body wouldn't move when I told it to.

Panicking, I tried desperately to move my arm, my fingers, but they would not respond. I wasn't even controlling my breathing at the moment, yet the steady rise and fall of my chest told me that I wasn't dead.

And then it hit me. I couldn't feel Ganondorf's presence at all. In all of the time since he had first spoken to me in my dreams, he had never been completely gone from my mind. Until now.

Something was wrong.

I felt almost as if my soul had left my body and stored itself deep within my mind. Suddenly, my arms pulled myself upright and I slid off of the bed, my muscles seeming to have a mind of their own.

'What is controlling me?' I thought desperately as my legs carried me out of my bedroom and down the hall toward the staircase. The servants didn't even bother to glance at me as they passed by, focused on their daily tasks. They had no way of knowing what was going on inside of me.

I proceeded down the stairs and around the corner, finding myself standing in front of the door to where the weapons were stored. My hand reached out and turned the knob ever so slowly, and I stepped inside.

Lined along the walls and floors of the massive room was a variety of countless weapons. Swords and spears of all different shapes and sizes, cross bows and regular bows - anything and everything a soldier might need for battle.

I found myself approaching the back corner of the room, where the larger weapons were kept. My arm reached out and yanked a rather massive sword off of it's mount on the wall. I was surprised that my arm could even hold the weight of the gigantic weapon, much less lift it up in front of me as my arm was doing now. I could hazily see my reflection in the shining blade. My eyes strangely glinted yellow in the reflection.

From deep inside myself, I distantly heard a knocking sound.

"Kiran? Some of the guards told me you came in here. Are you ready for training?" Link's voice sounded so far away… I tried to answer him, but nothing came out. And then I heard Ganondorf's voice reverberate from inside me.

"Training? From _you_?" he said, laughing mockingly. "You _must_ be joking."

My thoughts halted in shock. Ganondorf… was speaking through me, somehow. No. He _was_ me. He had complete control of my body, and all I could do was watch from deep within my mind.

Link hesitated, obviously puzzled at the change in my tone. "Are you all right, Kiran?"

"I'm just _fine_," Ganondorf snarled. "In fact, I'm better than ever."

The door opened slowly and Link cautiously stepped in. In the blink of an eye, my body whipped around to face him and I felt a powerful force erupt from my fingertips. Link dodged the magic attack just in time, and the cluster of dark energy collided with the wall behind him, smashing it to pieces.

Link could only stare in shock. "You're not Kiran," he murmured.

Ganondorf laughed manically in response. "Took you long enough to figure that out, _Hero_," he taunted.

I thanked the Goddesses then that Link had his sword and shield with him, as he always did. In an instant he unsheathed the Master Sword and tensed for Ganondorf's next strike.

I felt a rush of potent energy course through my body as Ganondorf conjured up another ball of black light, proceeding to throw it at Link with incredible speed. Again, Link somehow managed to throw himself out of the way, and Ganondorf snorted in anger. I felt my arm grip the hilt of the large sword I was holding as he brought it down on Link, who deflected it with his own sword.

Ganondorf seemed to have abandoned his previous tactic of firing balls of dark energy and moved on to standard sword fighting at the moment. I lost track of time as my father and Link fought each other vigorously, and I couldn't keep up with their fluid motions. I unconsciously allowed my soul to relax and let Ganondorf completely take over. There was nothing I could do to stop him, so why waste any effort? I let despair take hold of me and the world around me began to fade away.

Blurrily, I saw that Link was noticeably slowing down, sweat pouring down his face.

"What's wrong, Hero?" Ganondorf said mockingly. "Not so young anymore, are you? Has sitting on your ass in a castle all this time caught up with you?" With that, Ganondorf swung violently at Link, managing to slice into Link's right arm before he could dodge it.

Link cried out in pain and clutched his arm as blood poured from his wound. But he absolutely refused to give in. His eyes were filled with determination and hatred for Ganondorf. He parried Ganondorf's next blow with impressive ease and managed to make a few offensive moves of his own. I could feel Ganondorf's frustration rise as he vigorously conjured numerous spheres of powerful dark energy and hurled them at Link, who returned or dodged almost every one.

"Give it up!" Ganondorf yelled in rage. "Your attempts are in vain! You cannot defeat me without the Seventh Sage!"

Link's eyes widened as he realized the truth in Ganondorf's words. Even if Link could manage to incapacitate him, the power of the remaining Sages would not be strong enough to return Ganondorf to the Evil Realm…

I helplessly felt Ganondorf's muscles tighten in his arms as he raised his sword and brought it down on Link, who managed to thrust his sword up in defense with one arm. Ganondorf grunted in anger and swung his sword fast and hard, but Link parried every attack with only his left arm. I felt Ganondorf's anger rise and fuel him with the strength to penetrate Link's defense, slashing at his leg and leaving an even deeper cut. Link gasped as his leg buckled from beneath him and he stumbled to the ground. But he held his sword tightly.

Ganondorf towered over him, drowning him in his massive shadow.

Much to Ganondorf's and my surprise, Link curved his lips into a grin. "Maybe I can't defeat you, but I know someone who can," he said, his eyes twinkling as he stared into Ganondorf's eyes.

Ganondorf chuckled arrogantly, but I could feel anxiousness beginning to seep in. "What are you talking about, you fool?"

Link lifted himself from the ground and used the wall to support some of his weight. He was still staring into Ganondorf's eyes, grinning. I began to believe that he had gone mad, until I began to realize that he was looking past Ganondorf. Somehow, he was staring into _my _eyes, encouraging me silently with his intense gaze.

"Kiran," he whispered. I felt a chill rush through Ganondorf, through _me_, as my name was uttered.

Ganondorf grunted. "The boy can't do anything, even if he wanted to. _I _am in control now!" he shouted angrily.

"I think you underestimate your own son," Link retorted. "And I think you've forgotten who his mother is."

"Don't you mean who she _was_?" Ganondorf said tauntingly. "She's _dead_. Haha, her own son murdered her!"

"That's not true and you know it!" Link shouted, his eyes narrowing into slits of anger and accusation. "_You _murdered her. Kiran would never do such a thing! _You_… you somehow possessed him to do it! So don't even try your mind games on _me_!"

Ganondorf growled. "Fine," he grumbled, backing away slowly, but never taking his eyes off of Link. "I'll stop the games," he said dangerously, "as soon as you… DIE!"

With that, he swung his humongous sword and mightily thrust at Link, who leapt out of the way just in time.

A scene suddenly flashed before my eyes and I was momentarily whisked away from the raging battle. My mother's eyes were staring into my own.

"I will help you, Kiran. I will always be with you, deep within your heart. You need only to summon me from there."

I was brought back to reality when I felt Ganondorf's fear emanating within my entire being. Link was grinning again through his pain, his eyes focusing in on Ganondorf and showing his pure determination.

"The only way you could return to this world was through Kiran. Isn't it ironic that the only one who has the power to return you to the Evil realm is him as well?" Link asked, his grin widening.

"Wha…" Ganondorf faltered, utterly confused now. Desperate as he tried to hide any weakness from me, we were so strongly connected that I was in tune to his every thought and emotion.

"When you seduced Zelda you left a piece of yourself within her, within Kiran. Who's to say that she didn't do the same thing?"

What was Link saying? I thought vaguely. Had he lost his mind? But there had to be something about Link's words that made Ganondorf waver the way he was now.

"Kiran, only you can do this! It's _your_ body, your soul! Fight him!" Link cried, his eyes piercing into mine; his soul pleading me.

My mother's words came back to me once more.

"You need only to summon me from there for strength and guidance, but most of all, for wisdom. The wisdom that will enable you to make the right decision and conquer the evil."

I remembered the dream, and what Ganondorf had done to her. I realized that until that dream, I had always had so many doubts. Doubts about Link and my mother, doubts that my father had been pure evil. I had seriously considered submitting to Ganondorf merely because of my desire for a father.

But this wasn't about me anymore. No matter how I selfishly longed for the father that had been missing from my childhood, I couldn't allow him to destroy Hyrule. I had to completely let go of the promises he made and finally do something for others for once. I had to make the right decision.

I took advantage of Ganondorf's momentary confusion and made my strike. I fought to separate myself from him and to regain control of my body.

"The Triforce of Wisdom is with you!" I heard Link shout encouragingly.

And I felt it. I felt the Triforce of Wisdom, somewhere within me. I had no idea where it came from, but it was there somehow. So I used it to help in my struggle against my father.

White, hot pain seared through my skull as I felt Ganondorf gradually losing control. But I kept fighting. Visions flashed before my eyes; visions of my mother, and Link, and all kinds of different people and creatures I had never seen before. All suffering. Dying. Writhing in agony and pleading for mercy. I realized with horror that these were Ganondorf's memories. These were lives that he had taken throughout his reign of terror.

Now with a renewed sense of determination, I fought even harder to push Ganondorf out of my mind, even as the blinding pain became even more intense. All along I sensed my mother there with me, her aura of light encouraging me onward. I felt the pure energy of the Triforce of Wisdom flowing through my veins as she lent me her power from her position in the afterlife.

Ganondorf screamed torturously as he dropped his sword and stumbled to his knees. I was steadily regaining control of my body; I could feel it as I gained the ability to move my own hands.

Ganondorf's deafening and horrifying screaming in my mind made my head throb with pain, but I could vaguely hear Link's frantic voice above me.

"I'm here, Kiran. Stay with me. Please... don't go…"

His voice faded away as I was consumed by darkness.


	24. Closure

**A/N: **Finally... the last chapter. I'm very relieved that this is over. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed writing and sharing it, and I especially enjoyed all of the lovely reviews. I'm glad that I could at least finish what I started, even if it did take me forever. My only regret is that the story just wasn't very good. I hope it provided some entertainment at least.

Oh yeah, there will be an epilogue after this, just because I already had most of it written up and I think that's it's not awful enough to not post... and stuff. Also, this site is still being weird and messing some of the spacing and stuff up, so please bare with me on any mistakes.

* * *

**Closure**

Emptiness. That's all I felt at first. I was in a void of nothingness, trapped between the world of the living and the world of the dead. I could not remember who or what I was, or if I had ever even existed. It was an experience unlike any other. Surely this was dying, or so I thought.

Then everything came rushing back to me in in a blur of light, and I was momentarily stunned by the mix of pleasant and horrible memories flooding my mind.

I distantly heard soft voices muttering to each other, and when I heard Link I knew that I was not dead, as I had assumed.

"You think he had been planning to possess the boy all along?" The voice belonged to what sounded like a little girl - young, but wise beyond her years.

"I wouldn't doubt it," said an older, bitter female voice. "He was nothing but a pathetic, power-hungry monster, but there's no denying that he is intelligent enough to pull something like this."

"He's waking!" another voice cried as I lifted my heavy eyelids. Huddled around me were the blurry forms of the six sages, all of whom I had met in the past at one time or another: Saria of the Kokiri, Darunia of the Gorons, Ruto of the Zoras, Impa, Rauru, and Nabooru of the Gerudo. Confused but relieved to be alive, I rubbed my eyes.

"How are you feeling, Kiran?" Impa asked gently.

As I was about to reply, I heard agonizing screams in my head, and I knew that they belonged to Ganondorf.

"He's still there," I moaned, tears returning to my eyes. "He's still in my mind!"

"Shh, it's all right," Link reassured in a calm voice. "The important thing is that he's under control, and that you're alive."

My breaths came quickly and sharply as I continued to panic. Ganondorf was still screaming in rage and frustration, but the terrible sound was thankfully beginning to fade a bit. I slowed my breathing down and reopened my eyes, seeing Link by my bedside. He appeared battered and bruised, and I cringed when I remembered how Ganondorf had hurt him.

"What… what happened?" I whispered, my throat dry and my lips parched.

Link smiled at me through his bruised and smudged face. "You won," he said, his grin widening. That was the first time I can remember ever seeing him smile like that. "You beat Ganondorf; he's back in the Sacred Realm, where he belongs. He no longer has access to this world."

"Link," I muttered, "how… how did you know I had it in me to send him back? How could you possibly know that?"

His face darkened and his grin faded into a worried look. "Uh… actually, I didn't know. I was sort of biding for time and hoping to make him lose his nerve so that I could strike, and then the words… just sort of came out." His eyes shifted away and he furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

"Mother knew," I muttered, remembering my dream. I wondered vaguely if she also had contact with Link, and if he had subconsciously learned how to defeat Ganondorf from her.

I supposed we would never know. I was just thankful that it was over, even if I still had to work to keep Ganondorf under control for the rest of my life.

After giving several rounds of congratulations to both Link and me, the Sages all finally parted and headed off towards their individual temples. Link reluctantly allowed Leora to visit with me soon afterward.

"Daddy says you're sick!" she exclaimed excitedly. "And that I shouldn't pester you too much!"

"Hush Leora, you're going to give him a headache," Link scolded. I just laughed. After the day's ordeal, it was such a relief to see my bubbly little sister again. I shuddered when I thought about what could have happened to her had I let Ganondorf keep his control over me.

"Can we go outside, Daddy?" Leora asked, interrupting my thoughts. "You always said that fresh air is good for you, so maybe it will make Brother better!"

Link sighed. "No, I'm sure Kiran is exhausted and wants to rest…"

"That sounds nice," I interjected, smiling at my little sister. "I'll go outside for a little while."

We sat outside on a balcony and listened to Leora babble on for a while. Soon she grew restless and wandered off down the stairs to go play in the gardens. Link and I sat there in silence for a few moments as we gazed at the brilliant sunset. Off in the distance, to the East, I could see Death Mountain, majestically silhouetted against the vibrant sky. I looked to the West toward Gerudo Valley and thought about Toril. Even after so short a time away, I missed her terribly. I knew that she was the one I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, and that Link would accept it in time.

Then I started thinking about my mother. Had she truly been speaking to me from the afterlife in that dream, or had it merely been my imagination? Was she looking down at me right now? If so, was she looking at me with love and compassion in her eyes or with hatred and revulsion? Somehow, I didn't truly believe the latter, even if the dream I had had of her had actually only been a dream. Deep within my soul, I felt that she had forgiven me and was watching over me now, perhaps even with pride and empathy.

Link spoke after awhile, interrupting my thoughts.

"You've been through a lot," he said, staring thoughtfully off at the horizon. "And there's more that you will have to overcome in the near future. But I have faith in you." He paused, absently running his hand along his sword's sheath that hung at his belt. I could tell that he was a bit nervous. After all, he had never liked to show much emotion in front of anyone, especially me.

"Yes, you'll pull through. I'm certain of it," he continued, nodding to himself. "I know it's been far from easy for you. Ganondorf is quite the formidable opponent. I know from experience. But you didn't give up. I'm… proud of you."

I snapped my head up and stared in surprise. I couldn't help it. He had never said those words to me before. He was proud... of me? Even after all Ganondorf had forced me to do? Even though I was the offspring of his greatest enemy?

Link noticed my expression of surprise and smirked.

"I know, I know," he said. "I haven't done much to show it, and I apologize for that. I've kept my distance from you for a very long time." He sighed regretfully. "I'm sorry. If you really want to know the truth, I was scared of you."

I just stared. The almighty Hero of Time, scared of _me_?

"I've been terrified of you since the day you were born. Terrified that you had too much of Ganondorf in you. That you would become him. That you would hurt Zelda."

"But I did hurt her," I finally spoke up, looking down at the ground and angrily trying to hold back the tears that threatened to spill. "You were right the whole time. I killed her," I said bitterly, bursting with shame and anger at myself

"No, Kiran. Ganondorf killed your mother," he declared firmly. "We have established that. No one blames you for her death. _No one._ Understand?"

He has such a steely look of determination on his face that it almost frightened me. I only stared for a moment and nodded. He sighed deeply before going on.

"The truth is, I think of you as a son. I didn't before, I'll admit. But now, I think we have formed a bond much stronger than blood. Sure, I'm not your biological father, but somehow it doesn't seem to matter anymore." He paused and glanced at me. "I can only hope that you feel the same way."

I stared into those blue eyes of his and saw that he meant every word. I felt like a huge weight had been lifted from my heart, and the feeling almost made me breathless. Once more, I felt Ganondorf's presence completely leave my mind.

I smiled and nodded, certain now that I did truly think of him as a father. After all, he had been there for me all these years, in spite of who I was and what I had done, while my real father had forcefully invaded my mind and body and essentially tried to force me into becoming his reincarnation. I finally realized how much I admired Link for everything he did, and everything he was. He was my mentor, my friend, and my confidant.

But most of all, he was my father.

I could almost see my mother smiling down at us through the crimson-tinted clouds, and for the first time in my life, I felt at peace with myself. Link seemed to read my mind.

"She loved you so much," he said pensively. "And she still does. From the moment you were born, she protected you and defended you against everyone and everything. Even against me." His eyes shifted downward remorsefully. "I tried to convince her to get rid of you, and I am ashamed of that. I shouldn't have judged you so soon. Your mother had faith in you. She knew you were destined for great things. I guess she didn't have the Triforce of Wisdom for nothing."

I closed my eyes and smiled. "I guess not," I agreed.

There we remained until the sun disappeared behind Gerudo Valley, bringing an end to the light of day, but promising to return tomorrow to begin anew.

Just as we would.


	25. Epilogue

**A/N:** So sorry about the terrific lateness of this! This summer has made me even more lazy than usual. But here is the short, somewhat pointless epilogue.

Hahaha, someone mentioned a sequel… shifts eyes Just thinking about making a sequel gives me physical pain. Really. Even if I wanted to, I don't think I could crap out another half-assed story like this.

So no, there is most definitely not going to be a sequel. _But_…hopefully I'll get around to writing and posting one of my other Zelda fic ideas someday. Right now, I'm taking a break from Zelda, but who knows? Maybe the new game will inspire me or something.

I've made my mind up about one thing, though: no more original characters. They never turn out the way I want them to, so why bother?

* * *

Epilogue

I can feel Ganondorf's presence in my mind still to this day. I often wonder whether he'll ever leave; whether he'll be there until the day I die. But at least I have been able to completely keep him under control.

My future is still quite uncertain. As for inheriting the throne of Hyrule, I have decided to leave that to my sister Leora. First of all, I am aware that the people of Hyrule would not accept the son of Ganondorf as their king; it would stir up far too much dispute and hostilities among them. Not to mention the fact that I'm half-Gerudo, and many Hylians still firmly believe in having "pure-blood rulers." Also, I'm simply not the best candidate for such an immense job. I must concentrate on myself for a while, and work on driving the remnants of my father out of my mind and soul.

Leora reminds me so much of my mother that it nearly tears at my heart sometimes. I have faith that she will rule justly and contribute greatly to bringing about another golden age to Hyrule, just like our mother. Just as her name suggests, she will return the light to Hyrule that had been extinguished with the death of our mother.

My life after that incident has continued as normally as ever, with the exception of a few strange, recurring dreams that I have almost every night.

I dream of young boys garbed in green, all of them different, yet all similar in some way or another. They all remind me so much of Link. They all carry swords and shields and all have the same goal: to defeat evil and save the land.

I'm not quite sure what these dreams mean. I suppose it is possible that I inherited the gift of foresight from my mother, and that my dreams are in fact prophecies of the future. I have a feeling deep in my heart that dark times will return to Hyrule, whether it be in the form of Ganondorf or some other lurking evil.

But I do know one thing - I will have nothing to do with it. No longer will I listen to the dark voices in my head, urging me to do Ganondorf's will. No longer will I be merely a descendant of evil, an experiment created by my evil father to finish the job he himself could not complete.

Hopefully, someday, I will be able to ensure that Link's efforts and my mother's tragic death were not in vain. I will try my hardest to use what they have passed on to me to help return Hyrule to its original glory. I will continue to hope for the future of the land and all of its inhabitants.

Because hope is all I truly have now. Hope, and the support of those dearest to me, is all I truly need.

* * *

**A/N: **Not much of an ending, I know. But at least I managed to finish what I started, and that's quite unusual for me.

You know, what I might do just for fun is post a bonus chapter with a preview of another Zelda fic that I've been writing, but have pretty much given up on. Maybe a little encouragement would inspire me to continue it or something. So… maybe look out for that. :)


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